


i'll be home for christmas (you can count on me)

by daskey



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Andrea Rojas Has Powers, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Ruby Arias is an evil teenager, Sam Arias Has Powers, Sharing a Bed, Snowed In, andrea's jet gets grounded bc of a snowstorm, inspired by literally every hallmark movie synopsis, it's a whole thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:48:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28278657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daskey/pseuds/daskey
Summary: Andrea Rojas' jet is stuck in Metropolis Airport. Every single hotel in the city is full.Her only chance at avoiding staying in an airport terminal until the storm blows over? Staying at Sam Arias' brownstone in downtown Metropolis. Only thing is, Sam has a daughter. Who hates her.Oh and also, she hates Sam Arias.aka the reignjas hallmark movie au
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Arias/Andrea Rojas
Comments: 21
Kudos: 88





	i'll be home for christmas (you can count on me)

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to milf stans anonymous for the emotional support during the writing of this fic. without you, none of this would be possible

She's set to fly to NC. It's the last connecting flight, and the airport bustles with activity for the holidays. Families frantically pushing towards airline staff as the news rolls in like the ominous, thick snow clouds overhead. 

A blizzard. The biggest in a century. Set to cause havoc anywhere between the twelfth and the twenty-fourth.

Andrea's mouth feels like it's been filled with cotton and her skin feels tight and dry from the recirculated air. Her assistant's voice trembles as she tells her bad news after bad news. 

_All flights grounded._

And it's the holiday season. Twelve days before Christmas, to be exact. So there's also-

_No vacancies in Metropolis._

Angrily pressing the 'end call' button on her phone doesn't have the same catharsis of slamming down a handset or snapping a flip phone closed. Andrea grimaces, and prepares to fight to get her checked luggage. 

She angrily tweets @Metropolis_Airport and gets a placating, watered down PR-friendly message in response, and a reiteration that it's for _safety_. 

Andrea couldn't give a shit about safety at this point. She just wants to get _home_ . Home to her apartment, her kitchen, her _wine._

There's a faint chime as a notification comes in from Lena, who had probably just seen her angry tirade on Twitter. There's nothing that Lena can really do from back there in National City, and quite frankly Andrea isn't really in the mood to entertain her friend. 

If she can even call her that. 

_Fuck_. 

Andrea pinches the bridge of her nose, and glances around at the people who won't _shut up_ around her. Families with children and couples, mostly everyone travelling in groups, shouting about not being able to see their 'grandmother who is on their deathbed' or whatever sob story it is right now. She's exhausted, and it's irritating, _all of it,_ and she just wants out, and she could get a driver but her assistant had said that it would be a significant wait, and what's the point of getting a driver if she has nowhere to go-

Her phone chimes again. This time, a text message. From an unknown number. 

_Green parking, lvl 2. Take the East entrance and I'll be right by the door._

And as she wonders who the fuck is sending her messages-

_It's Sam, by the way._

_Samantha Arias, from L Corp._

Of course it is. Of _course_. As if her day can't get any worse. She's half tempted to text the woman and tell her to fuck off, that she's fine and she has this handled but she can feel the start of a stress migraine and she needs to get out of this terminal. 

Passing through the sliding doors to the parking garage, the cold air hits her with an unexpected amount of force. She drags her suitcase over an uneven step, and she flips off a cab driver who honks his horn at her as she crosses to the other entrance of the parking lot. 

_Welcome to Metropolis indeed._

Surprisingly, Samantha Arias is a welcome sight. Cutting an impressive silhouette as she stands at the back of her car, a smile teasing the corners of her lips. Dressed for work - pressed slacks and a blazer with the sleeves rolled up despite the bitter chill in the air. Hair tumbling down her shoulders in perfect waves. 

She twists the key, and the trunk opens up. Andrea raises an eyebrow but Sam is walking over anyways, reaching a hand over to take her suitcase from her, collapsing down the handle with an effortless _clack_ and hefting it up into the trunk with one hand. 

"You look like shit," Sam muses, close enough for Andrea to see the teasing glint in her eye. 

Andrea bites back, "That's what happens when you're flying for nearly twenty-four hours, and it's the _last_ connecting flight that gets cancelled." 

Sam laughs, it's a bright and cheerful sound at odds with the way Andrea feels. It would be irritating if she didn't know that this is just how Sam always is. "Well, you're back on land now." 

She pats her shoulder, and her hand is gentle and light, as if she's afraid to touch her- but the touch grounds Andrea in this reality, in the sounds of the multi-level parking lot, of Sam's heels against smooth concrete and the way the clatter of keys seems to echo in the mostly desolate parking lot. She doesn't open the door for Andrea, but steps inside and starts the engine. 

It's only after Andrea puts her seatbelt on that she notices there are two cups of coffee in the center console, and both are steaming hot.

Sam reverses and puts her hand on the back of Andrea's headrest when she does, looking behind since the car is old enough to not have a reversing camera. 

She's got her phone in her hand, long nails tap against the screen idly as she scrolls through Instagram, and reaches out with her free hand to the cup nearest to herself. Sam's trying not to act like she's paying too much attention to Andrea, but she can tell that the other woman's senses are fixated on her, figuring her out with a mind that goes faster than a lot of people realise. 

"I got it on the way here," Sam explains, then winces as she feels Andrea's pale eyes flicker to her curiously. She can almost see the knowing, smug little smirk appear on her lips. 

"I didn't ask," Andrea says with an arch of her eyebrow, and takes a sip of her coffee. Sam doesn't look at her but can feel her surprise at the taste, knows by the little pause where Andrea waits, makes sure her senses aren't deceiving her before she takes another sip. "You didn't ask for my order either, and yet you got it right. Almost like you-" 

"So how was the trip?" 

She's being civil now. Or at least, trying to hold her rampant distaste of her inside. Andrea isn't quite sure, but she's a lot different to the woman she remembered seeing years ago. Andrea knows that Sam doesn't like her. She's heard Lena mention it before- _Sam is very protective,_ she'd said, without making eye contact which had let Andrea know that there was something there between them, and that Andrea was implicitly outside of it. 

Metropolis in December is... _nice_. But Andrea doesn't want to be here. There's snow lining the streets, more snow than National City ever sees. Bare-branched trees are decorated with fairy lights, store windows are decked out with festive decorations. It's so contagious that even Sam hums along to the Christmas songs on the radio. 

But Andrea, for all intents and purposes, feels like a Grinch. 

"It might clear up soon, you know." Sam explains, gesturing up at the sky. "But till then, I have a guest room you can stay in for a few days." 

Andrea doesn't want to say yes. She doesn't. But she also knows she doesn't have much of a choice. It feels almost... _cliche_ . All the inns are full. It's biblical. And she's following Sam _Arias-_

Andrea takes another long sip of the latte and seethes at the fact that it tastes _perfect._

"Ruby's got her own room, and she's still at school for the moment so she won't bother you during the day." 

Oh yes. 

Of course. 

And she has a _daughter._

It's just past midnight when they get to the Arias' house. It's downtown, a brownstone with a tiny excuse for a front lawn and a narrow drive at the back that Sam parks her car at. 

Andrea starts to understand why she doesn't have something nicer. It probably wasn't _cheap_ , but this side of Metropolis, down by the docks, isn't exactly prime real estate. 

But Andrea isn't here to judge her host, not when she trudges through the fresh-fallen snow with her two suitcases and overnight bag in her arms. She's shocked when those reedy arms somehow manage to hold them above the snow level and she carries them up the narrow steps in one trip. 

Almost too effortless to be true, but Andrea isn't complaining since she's just saved her the hassle of having to carry it all herself. 

The house opens to a hallway and a staircase heading further up, railings decorated with garlands for the season. As soon as Andrea steps in, she nudges something with her foot and only belatedly realises it's a soccer ball when it rolls a little down the hallway. 

Sam grumbles under her breath. "I'm sorry, Ruby-" 

As if she's been summoned, the girl steps out of the kitchen, a half-eaten sandwich in hand, and eyebrows raised. 

She's a lot taller than Andrea recalls, the spitting image of her mother. She looks at Andrea up and down, and then at Sam for an explanation. 

"Andrea's staying here for a few nights. She's one of Lena's..." Sam starts, and trails off awkwardly. 

Andrea interjects. "A friend. I'm her friend." 

"Okay," Ruby drawls with an eye roll, heavily uninterested. She takes a big bite of the sandwich, and stomps back into the kitchen. 

"Ruby that's not how we greet a guest!" Sam calls out, but Ruby doesn't respond. The fridge door opens, and slams shut, and there's a murmuring, like the teen muttered something under her breath, before she disappears further into the house. 

"Charming." 

Sam gives her a withering look. She glances back to the kitchen and there's a twinge of emotion in the set of her jaw before she shakes herself out of it, and picks up Andrea's bags again. "Let me show you where you're staying." 

**-**

Hot-desking at L Corp wasn't part of Andrea's plans for December. 

Metropolis is cold to the point of it feeling like an insult. Sam takes the Metro to work from her brownstone, if the fact that she struggles to find her parking permit is any indication. 

She's never really given much thought to _what_ Sam Arias does. Honestly, she hasn't given her much thought at all bar from the obvious things. 

Sam Arias is tall. Sam Arias is too friendly. Sam Arias works at L Corp in some capacity. Sam Arias has a daughter. Sam Arias was there for Lena when she wasn't. 

Bitterness is something that Andrea wears well, but she tries to at least bury it down somewhat so she doesn't end up smoking up the car with her rage while they're stuck in Metropolis' iconic traffic. She buries it down when Sam makes a teasing little comment about corporate espionage that falls flat when Andrea responds with a tilt of her head and a quirk of her eyebrow. 

(Okay. Maybe Andrea isn't the _best_ at keeping her displeasure far from the surface.) 

She learns a lot about Sam from the walk into the Metropolis headquarters of the company formerly known as Luthorcorp. She fits in with her pressed navy blue suit, the clip on her tie and the ease of the businessman's smile that fits on her face. She stands next to Andrea in the elevator and nods at a few employees there, even striking a conversation with one in a casual yet professional manner. 

She's... 

Well.

Andrea wants to find something to point out but there's nothing, really. 

Sam's... _good_ at her job. 

She knows her employees. She's not just 'in finance' like she used to be, but she's CEO now and that strikes Andrea by surprise (she should really keep track of this sort of thing). She chats amicably with a few, has her assistant on a first name basis with her and even offers him to Andrea (she declines - she doesn't really want an L Corp employee looking at the inner workings of Obsidian or Catco). 

She has an empty office beside her that she loans out for the day, separated by a glass wall that's barely frosted in the middle for a modicum of privacy. She can see Sam's legs, and the top of her head when she's sitting at her desk. 

The only thing aggravating about her is that Sam Arias kicks off her shoes while she works. Andrea has to deal with glancing to the left and getting an eyeful of garishly festive patterned socks. 

Because of _course,_ Sam Arias wears novelty socks. 

-

It's already nearing four PM, but Sam doesn't seem to be moving from her desk. 

Andrea isn't staring, but she's got this odd sensation in the back of her mind that the other woman is busy. So busy, in fact, that she's forgetting something important. 

Something like a _daughter_ , who she'd promised to pick up in _person_ from school before they left in the morning. 

She ponders if she should tell her, if perhaps there's any point, really. What wins out is the petty little side of her that would want to see if she did in fact forget, and see her reaction. 

What she doesn't expect is to see Sam Arias, full time CEO and crazy sock wearer throwing down a stack of papers and bringing a hand to her head in frustration. 

She's got a hand arched to knock, but she doesn't have to. Sam seems to sense she's there, and her eyes snap to her in an instant. They stare at each other through the glass, and Andrea takes that as invitation enough and makes her way in. 

"Rough day?" 

Sam's expression sours even more at the teasing lilt to Andrea's voice. For once, Andrea sees something other than a smile on her face, but genuine frustration. "It's a long story. A long story that's going to take a _long_ time to get sorted today before closing because it's urgent- what do you need?" 

It's a dismissal if Andrea has ever heard one, and she wonders for a second why she bothered to offer the courtesy of reminding Sam about Ruby. But she sighs, and tries her hardest not to let the prickly Sam get to her. 

She really does. Perhaps it's a tiny fleck of kindness in her like the diamonds they find in sidewalk cracks. 

"You told Ruby you'd pick her up today," 

That kicks Sam right into action. "Oh sh-shoot," she scrambles up, getting tangled in a pair of earbuds- who uses wired earbuds anyways? In this decade? - and a notebook falls to the floor, a pen rolling underneath her desk. Sam pulls at her sleeve to look at the oversized watch on her wrist - oh and that makes sense now. "Fuck. I need to get this done..." 

She runs a hand through her hair again, tousling brown hair before she locks eyes with Andrea and-

No. 

_No._

She warns her as well as she can with a facial expression that had warned lesser people off from asking smaller things, but Sam's eyes grow honey-sweet and wide, and- fuck. Damn it. 

Sam holds out her keys, and a sheepish smile spreads on her lips that softens her entire face and the string of thoughts that come to mind are neither English nor devoid of curses. 

"Consider it rent?" 

"You owe me. Big time." Andrea snarls as she stalks over and snatches the keys from her hand, and she refuses to give any time to the utterly grateful praises Sam throws her way as she leaves. 

It must be drastic, Andrea muses, if Sam had deemed her worthy enough to pick up her reason for living from school. 

There's no other explanation. Despite her dislike of Sam and her irreverent progeny, even Andrea can begrudgingly admit that Sam is a good mother. One who pours her whole soul into everything she does. 

She'd have thought that schools would usually keep children inside when their parents were late, but Ruby sits on the steps of the narrow school building, kicking at the grey-brown sludge on the corner of the step. 

She looks miserable, and perhaps Andrea is optimistic that her presence might result in anything other than sass and eyerolls but when she honks the horn, and Ruby looks up to meet eyes with her, all she gets is simmering disdain. 

A backpack is tossed in the back seat, and Ruby makes her way to the front with a dramatic huff. 

Andrea doesn't start conversation. It's for the best. She's not really interested in entertaining small talk from a teenager with an attitude somehow bigger than her ego. 

"I hate you," Ruby decides to blurt out as a light changes from red to green, and Andrea can't even spare her the time to respond with eye contact. 

"Well, I don't really like you either," she cuts back, and she can see Ruby recoiling in the corner of her eye, shocked. "The feeling is mutual."

-

The child is annoying. She's around _all the time-_ of course, because she lives there. She's a large hulking mass of teenage angst about the same size as her, and she pushes past her in the hallways with a huff every time, the kind of sass that tells Andrea that Ruby is _aware_ of who she is and she's choosing not to care one bit. 

Sam tries, she really does. She has an enthusiasm for the season that seems to be at odds with the perpetual stormcloud of her daughter. 

The guest bed is just on the point of being uncomfortable. It's a fold-out murphy bed that's seen better days (Andrea can only hope that it won't snap shut like a mouse trap in the middle of the night when it creaks and groans like that). There's a draft in the window, but really, she's only meant to be here until the blizzard passes over. 

The blizzard that still hasn't shown itself quite yet. However, the snow is steady and regular enough to bring out the rumbling snow plow every morning, like clockwork. And every morning, like clockwork, Andrea is woken up by the lurching of the creaky bed and the tremors from the passing snow plow in the foundations of the old building. 

But again. It's only _temporary._ And Andrea's a bit of a spoiled rich brat (can't be insulted if you accept the term for yourself, can you?) but she's not stupid - a house like this, even in downtown Metropolis, would have cost Sam quite a lot. 

And Sam's been nothing but a gracious host. Breakfast, an offer to hotdesk for the rest of the week (the office closes on Thursday), and dinner. 

Which, of course, is what Andrea honestly dreads the most. 

It's nearing six-thirty, and Ruby sits on the sofa with her sneakers on the coffee table, a tablet in her hands and a pair of beat-up headphones that have somehow not been improved by the garish neon yellow patterned tape wrapped around the cups. 

There's the smell of something delicious, a stew of sorts that Sam cooked. She's a surprisingly good cook - although Andrea would never admit it to her, she'd missed home-cooked meals made by someone else. Sam is a whirlwind in the narrow kitchen, tossing a dish cloth over her shoulder just as Andrea walks in. 

"You eat meat, right?" She asks, and Andrea scoffs as she wanders towards the delectable scent. 

"Of course I do. Not all rich girls hate food." She reaches past Sam and lifts the lid of the pot, and honestly... it looks _good_. 

Damn Sam Arias and her impossibly good cooking. She can _feel_ her presence behind her, preening under the attention but before Andrea can say anything she's swivelling around again and calling out for Ruby again. 

She doesn't respond, and Sam looks frazzled for a moment before Andrea gestures at her ear, then towards the living room, and Sam gets the hint with a sigh. 

"Of course." Placing a stack of plates on the table, she shakes her head, starting to set the table. "I keep telling her she's going to ruin her hearing with those-" 

There's an obvious solution that Sam isn't seeing, and while she's preoccupied with setting up the table and rambling to herself, Andrea phases to the living room. 

Now, it's not exactly a necessary use of her powers, but she finds it incredibly satisfying when Ruby jumps nearly a foot off the sofa when she appears in her peripheral vision, seemingly from nowhere. 

"What the- where the hell did you-" 

"Dinner," Andrea says, with the slightest bit of a smirk on her face at catching the snarky teen by surprise. 

And then Sam adds - "Language!" 

Andrea, one. Ruby, zero. 

-

Ruby seems to want to get her back for that surprise. Andrea can tell, can almost see the gears in the teen's mind working as she figures out the perfect payback, even as she wanders off to bed after helping her mother with the dishes. 

Still, there's a kind of satisfaction that Andrea gets from one-upping her. She tries not to ride the high for too long, but it's amusing and it keeps bringing a smile to her face. 

"Penny for your thoughts?" 

Andrea turns around, as Sam ambles over. Two glasses of red wine in hand and a curious expression on her face.

"I think they'd be worth more than a _penny_ ," Andrea drawls as she plucks a glass from Sam's hand. Sam's chuckle warms her up more than the first sip of the cleanskin shiraz. 

The energy in the dimly-lit kitchen is pleasant. The lights in the living room are off and the house is still and quiet. The street seems to have calmed down somewhat too, and when Andrea glances out the kitchen window she can see that it's snowing again. Steady, yet calm. 

"How's the room?" Sam asks, and Andrea will blame the wine for how quickly her expression turns into one of moderate displeasure. Sam's amber eyes widen, and she leans forward, immediately concerned. "Oh no, that bad?" 

"No it's-" Andrea tries to ease her somewhat, resting a hand on her arm, and she's momentarily confused by the unexpected solidness of her bicep. Sam is as thin as a twig, she shouldn't feel like she's flexing when she's just standing there. 

Perhaps it's just stress. She might just hold a lot of tension. "I mean... if it's that bad you can always take my bed. The couch folds out-" 

Andrea scoffs, and dismisses that thought with a wave of her hand. "I'm not kicking you out of your bed. It's _fine_. I'm just not used to..." 

"I've got a real nice mattress," Sam adds, almost like she's proud of the fact that she's invested in memory foam. "Trust me, you'll be out like a light. Take my bed, the couch will be fine-" 

"You're like seven foot tall, Samantha. I'm not kicking you out of-" 

"Well then we could sleep together." Sam blurts, and when Andrea suddenly freezes, she scrambles to recover the situation. "I mean... we could sleep in the same bed. That's something people do, right? I meant sharing a bed." 

Andrea glances at Sam's wine glass. She's barely drank any of it, but she's already spouting nonsense. 

-

“This is my side,” Andrea points out, and Sam’s lips twitch with amusement, but thankfully she keeps her pretty mouth shut and does not try to remind her that the bed does not belong to her. “You stick to your side, and your pillow.” 

“Okay.” With a shrug, Sam starts to clamber into her side of the bed. “I’ll have you know that I’ve never had any complaints,” 

Andrea barks out a laugh, and rolls her eyes. “What, from Ruby?” 

“Not just Ruby! Lena never said anything.” 

And there it is. The elephant in the room. 

Sam lies with her back against the bed, and her eyes firmly fixed to the ceiling. She doesn’t say anything, but her jaw clicks shut after she finishes speaking and she purses her lips, eyes wide as she takes in what she’d just said. 

"So you-" 

"Please. I don't want to get into it," Sam murmurs, and her voice breaks a little- "It's not fair to Lena-" 

"Right. I don't want to know, anyways." 

It's a frosty way to end the night. 

Snow collects on the windowsill outside. 

-

Frustratingly, she wakes up later in the morning. The snowplow is already halfway down the street when she opens her eyes and is greeted by the sight of Sam's gently toned back. She stretches, then scratches at the back of her head, mussing up her hair as she wanders to the bathroom. 

She slept _well_. Which is annoying. 

Of course, her awakeness doesn't go unnoticed. She's not one to be bashful though, so she sits up when she hears Sam call out a toothbrush-muffled "good morning", and makes eye contact with Andrea through the bathroom mirror. 

Well. She needs to get up now. At some point. 

"Sleep well?" It feels like a teasing comment, but then again everything does when Sam looks at her like that- narrow-eyed and mischievous. 

"You move too much in your sleep," She grumbles, hunting around on the bedside table for her phone. It's there, and halfway to dead which is _frustrating_ because that means that somehow she'd forgotten to charge it before she went to bed-

"I wouldn't need to move around so much if your feet weren't freezing cold," Sam adds, and Andrea glares at her from the corner of her eyes. "You must have bad circulation." 

How _dare_ she. It's then Andrea realises that she's somehow tangled in all the blankets. Did she do that, or did Sam? Either way, it's annoying. 

Everything is. 

_Coffee please._

She rubs at her face, rubbing at the bridge of her nose and sneering - "Not everyone can be bioengineered by aliens to be _perfect_." 

And then she hears nothing but silence from Sam. No snide retort. No comments. Not even any brushing noises. 

She glances up, and realises that Sam's turned her whole torso around to face her. Her eyes are wide, almost as if she's _shocked_ that Andrea has two working brain cells. 

"What?" 

"You know?" 

"Of course I know. It wasn't hard to figure out." Andrea snaps, because seriously. She carried _all_ her luggage up two flights of stairs. Sam wasn't _subtle_. "To make things even, I was an assassin. Acrata. You've never heard of me, because I was never caught. Crazy alien spirit magic. I can turn into shadow." 

That trips up Sam, and she rolls her eyes with a short bark of laughter. "You're fucking with me." 

One thing she should learn is that Andrea Rojas likes to find the most dramatic way to make a point. 

So, with Sam's eyes on her, she phases across the room and into the bathroom, right into the shadow Sam casts behind her. 

And Sam nearly drops her toothbrush in her shock. 

"Holy shit," 

"Exactly. Now you know my secret, and I know yours." Andrea murmurs with a smirk, grabbing her own brush from her toiletry bag and hip-checking Sam out of the way of the sink. "...and you need to make me breakfast." 

-

Andrea hadn't really given much thought to the steadily falling snow. She did when it causes an issue when they open the door that morning, Ruby with her school bag in tow, and Andrea with her phone in hand. 

They don't realise Sam's stopped till they all collide with each other, and peer out disgruntled at each other and at the snow that has the car basically bogged down in the driveway. 

Winter. 

Andrea's _least_ favourite season. 

Ruby huffs, and nearly throws her bag into the snow with a dramatic shrug of her shoulders. In terms of theatrics, she truly does give Andrea a run for her money. "Mom, I'm going to be late for school." 

"We're all going to be late, and you can't complain since you took so long to get ready this morning," Sam retorts, and there's a little bit of a cloud over Sam's usually sunny demeanor. "Now go get a shovel." 

" _You_ get a shovel. How come Andrea doesn't have to-" 

Andrea arches an eyebrow at Ruby, and she clicks her jaw shut and glares in response. 

Now, Sam herself is not particularly enjoying this frosty morning either, but she's got things to do. A job to do. Ruby's half hearted, distracted shovelling (complete with eye-rolling and sighs) is not exactly helping. 

She can tell that Andrea's growing impatient too. Checking her phone every few seconds before huffing, a big cloud of condensation in front of her face as she shoves her hands back in her pockets. One minute becomes five, and Andrea groans and throws her hair over her shoulder. 

"I swear, this is taking fore-" 

"If you weren't just standing there..." Ruby says with a roll of her eyes, sinking her shovel into the thick blanket of snow. 

Sam glances over her shoulder but really, she should have done more. Because the second she sinks her shovel into a large clod of snow, she hears the unmistakable _swish-thud_ of a snowball, sailing through the air and hitting-

She turns around and her blood runs cold as she sees Andrea reeling back, shrugging snow off her clothes and inevitably getting some under her collar by the looks of things. 

The _audacity_ -

"Ruby!" Sam admonishes, an apology already on her lips but before she can decide on berating her daughter or apologising to her house guest, Ruby shrieks as a shower of snow is hastily thrown in her direction. 

Andrea's ice blue eyes are alight with something akin to divine fury, and the satisfied grin that appears on her face when she gets her revenge is a sight to behold. 

Then all hell breaks loose. 

There are no teams. There are no alliances. There is only snow, and the hasty scooping of it with frosted breath and clammy gloved fingers. 

Ruby sprints around the car and nearly slips on Sam's shovelled side when she gets to cover. Sam tries to tell her not to hide behind the car, but then _she's_ hit by a snowball, the shock of cold slapping across her cheek and as she turns around to wipe the melting snow off her face she sees a not-at-all-sheepish Andrea with an arched eyebrow and another ball of snow in the making. 

She narrows her eyes in response. If Andrea wants war-

She ducks down and gets herself a large scooping of fresh snow, compacting it between her hands but as she looks up, she only sees a wisp of shadow leaving the alcove by the front door. 

"That's _cheating_." Sam mutters, not before she's pelted again by a snowball from behind. It thwacks into her back and she reels around, throwing the snowball at Ruby, who barely ducks in time. 

The mystery of Andrea's whereabouts is one that Sam will solve later. Right now, Ruby has decided to start rapid-firing snowballs at Sam. She can't even run away fast enough, her legs get caught on _something_ under a snowdrift and she goes careening into the snow, falling face first into the garden. 

That causes a series of laughs, followed by Andrea's call of "Hey! There you are!" with another snowball thrown at Ruby. As Sam gets the snow out of her face, sitting up from the cold and wet, she follows the trajectory of the next few snowballs and finds Andrea barely hidden behind a row of bushes. 

She gestures a gloved hand to Sam, encouraging her to find shelter behind the same tree. Sam scrambles up to her feet but she's not fast enough, getting pelted with no less than four snowballs before she's caught by the scarf by Andrea and dragged to safety. 

"It's so satisfying to _finally_ find something that you're not good at," there's a snowball shoved into Sam's gloved hands, and when Sam looks Andrea in the eyes she sees that she's _laughing_ at her. But she can't even be mad, despite the fact her clothes will no doubt be soggy and cold for the rest of the day. 

"I'll have you know that I'm out of practice!" Sam counters, and Andrea rolls her eyes as if to say _that's not an excuse_. 

"Well, first of all get _down_ ," Andrea hisses, and tugs at Sam again to pull her head down just as a snowball flies overhead. They are inches away from each other now, close enough that Sam can see the way the cold brings a rosy tint to Andrea's cheeks and the tip of her nose, close enough to count the snowflakes caught on her eyelashes if she wanted to. 

_What?_ Sam shakes herself out of her thoughts as she watches Andrea survey the front yard with a level of awareness that Sam had only ever seen from her old friends in National City. 

"I can't even remember the last time that Ruby even wanted to have a snowball fight-" 

Andrea gives her a wan little smile, before there's the sound of quick, heavy footsteps in the snow. 

She's literally having a conversation with Andrea, and she watches as she just... fades out of existence and a trail of smoke passes between her legs. She turns around just in time to see a flurry of snowballs sailing directly to her face-

Sam throws her one remaining snowball, and misses. 

Andrea steps up behind Ruby and joins in the onslaught. For some reason, it's made all the more funny by the fact that Sam is currently standing up and not reacting like a normal person would to snowballs thrown at full force. 

"Okay! Okay you win! Truce. Please. Truce-" 

She holds her hands up in front of her face, and as both Andrea and Ruby finish their snowballs, she looks like the abominable snowman, coated from head to toe in powdery snow. 

There is silence. 

Sam opens her eyes, and slowly lowers her hands. "Are you done?" She asks, her voice somewhat shaky, tentative. 

Andrea still has a snowball. 

She throws said snowball. 

Ruby bursts into laughter beside her, barely able to hold it back. The teen glances at Andrea from the corner of her eye and there's something akin to respect there that Andrea preens under before Sam gives them both a withering look. 

"You're both horrible." Sam grumbles, shaking off the snow yet again. She takes off her beanie, shaking out some of the snow before pulling it back on over her head. 

There's a beep from both Ruby and Sam's phones, and Ruby hisses out a _yes_ as Sam groans. 

"Hey mom? It's a snow day." 

Sam scowls at her phone. "Go figure." She inhales deeply, looking at the car before turning to look back up at the brownstone. "Well, get upstairs and change. I'll make hot chocolate. Guess we're all working from home." 

Ruby doesn't bother to hide her enthusiasm, tossing her backpack to the floor as soon as she enters the house and tracks snow all the way down the hall. 

It's not really that there's much that needs wrapping up before Christmas anyways that she particularly needs an office to do. There are a few work calls, one with L Corp which would most likely devolve into her and Lena talking shit about whatever Scrooge-like behaviour Morgan Edge and his ilk decided to do this year. 

The steady progression of time towards the holidays isn't lost on her. Her jet is still grounded for the time being, and she feels the sneaking suspicion that this building snowstorm is going to keep her here right up until that final hour. 

For some reason, she doesn't feel as bad about it. Not right now, when she steps into Sam's kitchen and sees her at the stove making hot chocolate the old fashioned way, a bag of mini marshmallows by her side, humming carols to herself. 

The room is filled with the delicious smell of chocolate and the warm tint of spice. It's as Christmassy of a scene as it could be, even with the crunchy sound coming from the old radio.

At least she's not alone this year. 

"Marshmallows?" Sam asks, glancing over her shoulder. 

"Is that even a question?" 

The smile she flashes Andrea makes her a little bit nervous. She half expects Sam to dunk a cup full of mini marshmallows in front of her but Sam is at least nice enough to sprinkle just a handful on the top of the frothed milk. 

"You a drinker, Rojas?" 

Andrea rolls her eyes. "Please. I'm going to need it to get through this day with the both of you." 

Sam laughs, and takes a bottle of whiskey from the top shelf and dashes just a bit into the large mug. She holds it out with a proud grin, and if Andrea's hands linger on the mug (and over Sam's hand) a little longer than necessary, well- that's only giving her time to thank her with a small smile and a glance. 

It's when she's sipping the (perfect) hot chocolate later, at Sam's dining table, staring out at people moving about their daily business outside, that Andrea wonders when she'd stopped thinking of Sam as her enemy, and started to consider her... differently.

Not as a friend, because they're still decidedly not friends. But they are friendly. They joke around. Sam looks at her now and there isn't that barely-there sneer, that cold glare that used to exist before. She isn't sure what it means. But it's a good thing. 

Lena calls before long, and Andrea turns on video to see Lena at work, her hair pulled back and bright red lipstick in place. Her trademark armor. 

_"Great to see you're still alive,"_ Lena starts, a teasing lilt to her voice. _"I was expecting the both of you to kill each other."_

"I'm perfectly capable of being civil." Andrea snarks back, and at Lena's incredulous eyebrow raise she adds- "When I want to be." 

It's nice to get a chance to talk to an old friend like this. Lena rests her head on her hand, and Andrea notices that she's at the office. National City's skyline looks as it usually does, the sky is that pale blue of a brisk yet cloudless winter day. 

Unfair. 

_"Have you started your Christmas shopping?"_

"Why?" Andrea asks, leaning back in her chair. 

Lena laughs, as if she knows something that Andrea does not. " _You're not going to stay there for the holidays without at least getting them a gift. You know Sam will get something for you."_

She glances over the screen at Sam, who walks through the hall out to the kitchen. She has a cup of coffee in one hand and her phone squished between her shoulder and her ear as she gives a series of affirmative noises at whoever she's talking to. 

It does seem like something that Sam would frustratingly decide to do. 

"Yes. Well... I'm going. Tomorrow maybe. We're working from home now, so I can't." 

_"Well, if you're considering things for her daughter, Ruby likes soccer. She's on a team herself,"_ Lena adds, and Andrea doesn't want to admit that the tidbit of information is actually somewhat useful. Soccer she can work with. 

Her father had taken her to games when she was younger, cultivated a love of the sport when she was young. She still found herself dropping by games when her team was playing and she happened to be in the same city. Rustling up some tickets to a game would be easy, even easier to pull a favour from the USWNT since Catco had signed a deal to cover their next season. 

" _You could get her some soccer boots, a jersey. Something like that."_ Lena says with a wave of her hand, and Andrea can tell that she doesn't think that Andrea would care much for anything more complicated. She doesn't let her know her plans though. 

"Yeah, probably. That'd make sense." 

There's not really much else of note for the rest of the conversation. Lena's dealing with a falling out with a friend. She's emotional about her family. She's deconstructed her coffee machine because it was irritating her, and now she's considering branching out into household appliances. It's all menial things, but it helps her to put things into perspective again. 

This little bubble she's in, with Sam and Ruby, snowball fights and hot chocolate is only temporary. 

However, just like the hot chocolate that's half-finished in her mug right now- Andrea almost wants to _savour_ it. Enjoy every little last moment despite her past dislike of the woman, because really when was the last time she spent Christmas like this since Russel?

"I better go," Andrea says to Lena after a long pause, and Lena agrees and they both cut off quickly. It's good, at least, she can find an excuse about work and Lena will understand- they're both busy people. 

But Andrea doesn't go on to work. She closes her laptop, and takes out her airpods and takes a moment just to breathe in her surroundings. It's nearly lunchtime by the time the call ends, and she hears before she sees Ruby, the teen's thumping steps as she wanders in and out of the kitchen, once, twice, then glances around the hallway. 

Hungry, apparently. 

Well. Andrea can help that. 

-

Sam's in the middle of a call with a group of mid-managers that's going over time. It's nothing important, a self-important circlejerk of people thanking themselves for the fruits of other people's labor. She's more than aware that it's getting closer and closer to lunch, and her daughter is probably about to bust open her door at any moment. 

But then the delicious smell of food wafts up the stairs and into her home office, and the speed at which she cuts the call is nearly dizzying for the remaining people in the call. 

She makes her way downstairs, careful not to slip as she's only in socks but that _smell_ is making her mouth water and her stomach remind her exactly just how hungry she is. 

What she expects is to see Ruby downstairs with takeout (it wouldn't be the first time that her daughter ordered Uber Eats without asking her first). What she doesn't expect is to see Ruby stepping up next to Andrea with a plate and a big smile. 

Is it upside down day? Is she dreaming? 

After a moment, Sam has her own plate in her hands, and the source of the delicious smell is some kind of soup. How she managed to make it as fast as she did, Sam has no idea. 

It's delicious. Sam doesn't even have to rush to catch Ruby before she runs off, after seconds she's weighted down to her chair and all she has to do is gesture at the sink for her to end up filling the dishwasher without complaint. 

Andrea acts as if it was no big deal in particular. Shrugs off Sam's thanks with "I had some free time. Slow news day." 

"I didn't know you could cook," Sam says, incredulous, and Andrea seems to preen a little like it's a compliment. "I might just want to keep you around. For the food of course." 

Andrea laughs. "Please. The second my jet is ready? I'm out of here." 

"As if you have anything important waiting for you in National City." Sam huffs, and Andrea rolls her eyes with a knowing little smile.

Andrea changes the subject, standing up and walking to the window. She stretches just a bit, and Sam watches the curve of her back as she leans to the side to glance at the tiny view of the street that they can see from their kitchen window. "What's your plan for the rest of the day?" She asks, glancing over her shoulder at Sam. 

Sam's eyes flicker quickly back to Andrea's eyes. "Uh, no more meetings. I've just got to address a few emails, shouldn't take too long. Then I have to clean the chimney, and the living room while I'm at it... then I was going to the grocery store after that, I want to stock up the fridge- you probably noticed it was pretty empty." 

Andrea rolls her eyes and huffs out a laugh. "Oh I noticed. Why do you think the soup was so bland?" 

"It wasn't bland," Sam murmurs, and Andrea's expression softens for just a moment before she shakes her head. 

-

The rest of the afternoon passes pretty uneventfully for Andrea. Sam leaves her with Ruby for a while, but honestly Ruby doesn't even notice Sam's absence, busy on her laptop for the entire day. 

Andrea doesn't really care enough to check if the girl is catching up on homework like she said she was. It's close enough to the holidays for it not to really matter. 

Then Sam comes back, and is a whirlwind as she cleans up the living room with those new cleaning products. Then somehow amongst that she sets up dinner, and answers a phone call from a foreign investor and Andrea hears her speaking in two separate languages, fluent and without a stutter in a way that truly surprises her. 

But she doesn't make a big deal out of it, so Andrea acts like she didn't hear it. It might be one of those perks of being a space alien after all, and Andrea doesn't want to bring up that can of worms. 

By the time things truly calm down, it's late, late enough for the lights in the living room to be on casting a soft warm glow over everything. 

She can see Sam hunched down in front of the fireplace, muttering to herself as she tends to a tiny flurry of kindling that doesn't seem to be lighting properly. Andrea idly watches the curve of her neck, the way her hair sways dangerously close to the sparking twigs. 

Would Sam even be able to catch fire? Probably not. Either way, Andrea walks over to rest a hand on her shoulder, the rough knit of her sweater against her hand for just a moment before Sam startles a little, her head quickly swivelling to look up at Andrea before that dopey smile that Andrea can't really find in herself to hate spreads on her face. 

"I managed to clean the chimney! There was an old birds' nest in there," she says, and then her nose wrinkles. "At least I _hope_ it was a bird nest-" 

Sam grimaces, and drops the now steadily alight kindling into the fire before rubbing slightly sooty hands on the front of her jeans. Andrea decides not to mention that most people would not be able to hold burning twigs for as long as she did. 

"Is there an occasion?" Andrea asks as Sam picks a bottle of wine off the mantlepiece, along with two glasses of wine. Sam gives her a shy smile, settling on the couch and gesturing to the spot beside her. 

"Does there have to be?" 

She has a point. 

By the time the logs are alight, and the lounge room is filled with the gentle crackling of a fire and the weary drone of Sam's ancient CD player in the background, Andrea's had two glasses of a decent red wine and she's comfortable in a way she hasn't felt in a while. 

She's unused to talking about nothing with people. While she had _friends_ , they're more like associates now, equally successful people with jobs and lives and then there's Lena, who stays as an uncomfortable loose end. She runs her fingers across the rim of her wineglass idly, and Sam's eyes follow the motion before they flicker back to Andrea's eyes. 

"What would you be doing for the holidays?" she leans back against the sofa, an arm tossed over the side of it. "If you were back in National City.” 

It's a good question. Andrea purses her lips, before tossing a glance at the fire. "The usual, really. Catco and Obsidian have their holiday events, then after that it's... maybe going home." 

Sam's eyes burn with curiosity, Andrea can feel her staring at the side of her face. She doesn't know why- she blames the wine- she opens up, turns to meet Sam's gentle, searching smile. 

"Home is Buenos Aires, my father still lives there. He-" her breath hitches at the mention, and Sam inches closer to comfort her but Andrea tries in vain to push back the involuntary surge of emotion. 

It's hard though. It's been a long few years, with Obsidian, and Acrata, and Leviathan. She's gone through both challenges and successes, and she knows he isn't getting better. 

"Holidays were always his favourite time of the year. We always had big dinners, he'd invite everyone over, and instead of hiring someone to cater he'd always insist on cooking. And _obviously_ , I had to help, as we were inviting very important guests. I never understood why, if they were that important, he didn't just get a professional to cook." 

The memory of his stubbornness brings a laugh up to the surface, and she glances down at her wine glass as she smiles. 

"Were you going to go there this year?" Sam asks, tentatively, and Andrea shakes her head. 

"It's been years since we did something like that. People got busy, he stopped inviting as many people over. The last time I went-" 

It's been a while. 

A long while. 

Andrea doesn't like how her chest feels tight at the reminder, and she shakes her head out of those thoughts. "What about you? You don't talk much about your family." 

That little tiny smile that had rested in the corner of Sam's lips falls, and Andrea regrets her quick redirection. 

"You've met my family," Sam deflects, reaching for the wine bottle. 

Andrea frowns, looking sideways at Sam. "Yeah, but-" 

"There isn't anyone else. It's only us," She caps the bottle after pouring herself a heavy glass, and takes a deep gulp, locking eyes with an unimpressed Andrea. 

After a long, frosty pause, Sam crumbles under Andrea's gaze and she sighs, running a hand over her face. 

"I was kicked out when I got pregnant. I was sixteen, and when Ruby was born, she was all I had, so... it's only us." 

Oh, how Andrea regrets asking now. If she hated Sam's goofy smile? She hates this more. Not because it irritates her, but more because it makes her feel _unsettled_. The downwards slump of her shoulders and the way she curls in on herself. She doesn't know what to do.

So she reaches out, rests a hand on Sam's knee. Sam's eyes lock onto hers, and all Andrea can do is give her a tight-lipped smile. 

It prompts Sam to open up more. She's as reluctant as Andrea to do so, she squirms and rolls her shoulders back, glancing at the photos on the mantelpiece. "Patricia was really religious, but she cared more about what other people thought, than what the whole religion thing was all about. We lived in a small town, so..." 

Every word dredges up a memory, that much Andrea can tell from Sam's pained expression, and the way that her eyes well up more. She squeezes Sam's knee, and shifts closer to her on the couch just a bit. 

"Hey," she murmurs, shaking her head. "Fuck that old bitch, alright?" 

The soft tone of her voice contrasts with her words so much that it startles Sam right out of her melancholy. Her eyes shoot wide open, and she stares at Andrea in confusion. 

"You've made your family. You don't need her." 

"I'm not bothered by-" 

Andrea raises her eyebrows and stares at Sam incredulously, and she withers under her gaze. She sighs, heavy, and pinches the bridge of her nose. 

She stays there for an awkwardly long moment. Just breathing, collecting herself. Andrea doesn't realise her hand has started moving back and forth on Sam's thigh, a gesture of comfort, till the CD skips and stutters to silence and they're both startled out of the moment. 

"You need to replace that stupid thing," Andrea grumbles, and Sam shakes her head. 

"I can't. They don't make these anymore," 

"Yeah," Andrea snarks, shaking her head. "Because nobody uses CDs." 

Sam rolls her eyes, and it feels almost refreshing to get back to _this_ and not the emotionally charged moment of before. She slaps her hands on her thighs as she stands up, and wanders over to the CD player, treating it with gentle hands and ignoring Andrea fully.

"This was one of the first things I bought for us that was just... cause I wanted it. Not because I needed it to live. We were in a shitty apartment, I'd finally managed to get ahead on rent for once..." 

Sam trails off, and glances over her shoulder at Andrea. 

"Sentimental value I guess." She says with a shrug, and a self-deprecating smile, and something shifts in Andrea's chest. 

She goes to drink from her glass, but it's empty. She isn't in the mood for more, and places it on the table before Sam can try and be polite and get her more drunk. The taller woman doesn't wander back over like Andrea thinks she will, but waits as the next song starts to play. 

Of course, it's another cheesy Christmas song, and the goofy smile is back on her face when the jingling starts and Andrea rolls her eyes in exasperation. 

She's thankfully saved by a phone call as Sam turns to say something to her, and she tries not to think about how Sam's hand had been half-extended, almost like she was about to ask her to-

_Get it together Andrea._

She looks at her phone, and tries not to sound too apologetic when she says- "I have to take this." 

Sam waves her off, but her eyes don't stray from her as she walks into the next room to take the call. 

-

Sam climbs into bed late after that. The call seems to run late, and Andrea pretends to be asleep on her side of the bed, facing away from the middle, the blankets already wrapped around her. 

Sam doesn't say anything as she slips in, makes herself comfortable. She's warm, Andrea can feel her warmth even with the space between them. 

"Goodnight," Sam eventually murmurs, and Andrea can't let her go to sleep sounding so dejected. Like someone had well and truly rained right on her parade. 

Andrea flicks the light on. The way Sam blinks, eyes wide and confused, would almost be comical if they weren't also bloodshot like she'd been crying. 

Andrea's brow furrows and she sits up in bed, staring down at the other woman "Hey, what the hell happened?" 

Sam shakes her head, like she doesn't want to speak about it but the tears prick at her eyes. 

"I just feel terrible. I only got to shop today, and Christmas is coming up and I haven't been paying much attention to Ruby but work is... it's _hectic_ as CEO for Metropolis. There are so many more assholes left from the old Luthorcorp days, and they just seem to think that I'm not dedicated enough to my job-" 

"Do you want me to kill them?" Andrea half-jokes, and that's enough to cut Sam's rant right in half. "I'm kidding. Kind of." 

Sam chuckles, and wipes at her eye with a hand. "I think I'm just overwhelmed." 

"Yeah well, I'm probably not helping by being here." 

Sam looks up at her then, her expression calming somewhat. She studies Andrea's face, and Andrea feels that little teasing lilt to her voice still echoing in the space between them. 

It's then that she realises how they're sitting. How Andrea's almost above her. How she must look like from Sam's perspective. How Sam's hair splays on the pillow beneath her. It's almost too much, too _intimate_ when Sam starts to talk and her voice is a low rasp, something quiet, like she wants the words to be heard by only Andrea, no-one else. 

"You _are_ helping _._ You helped today. With lunch. And you're- it's nice to not be alone for a change. To have some company that isn't all just... eyerolls and sass." 

When Andrea tries to cut the tension with a joke, Sam holds up a finger as if to shush her. 

"Yes I know you're the queen of eyerolls and sass. Thank you. Just-... I saw Ruby _actually_ laugh today. She was actually happy. It's been a while since I've seen her like that. And that's because of you." 

"She hates me," Andrea scoffs, "She was only happy since she got the jump on me with that snowball." 

Sam's cheeky smile comes back, from the way she's lying down, looking up at Andrea. it feels sweeter somehow. It makes Andrea's chest ache, it draws her in. 

So Andrea pulls back, and it takes everything in herself to turn around and switch the light off instead of doing something stupid like _kiss_ her. 

"'Night, Andrea." Sam says to the dark, but this time it's not at all melancholy. 

"Goodnight," Andrea murmurs back, and she can feel Sam's smile beside her. 

-

Sam is reluctant to wake Andrea up early the next morning (she'd fallen back asleep after Sam had woken up at dawn, with a grumble about time zones and inhuman sleep schedules), but Ruby's up and already pestering her about tree shopping. 

"We don't need to bring Andrea. How's she gonna help? She's probably going to complain the whole time." 

"You're complaining at me right now," Sam counters, and Ruby shuts her mouth with an audible click, glaring at her mother. Sam glares back, and they last all of five seconds before Ruby blinks, and concedes with a heavy sigh. 

Staring contests are a _lot_ easier now after- 

Sam pours herself a coffee, and as the steam curls into the brisk air of the kitchen, she goes to grab a second. "Listen, Rubes. She's only going to be here for a few more days, and we might as well bring her with us so she doesn't get bored." 

"You talk about her like she's a stray cat or something," Ruby grumbles, and then looks up at Sam with a withering look. "A cat would be so much better." 

Sam doesn't bother to respond, she picks up Andrea's mug intending on bringing it to her room but the woman strides out of the hallway and into the kitchen. 

Her hair is still a mess, and she's in a thin silk kimono over her pyjamas once again. It isn't new, but it makes Sam falter in her step. Her phone is glued to her ear, and Andrea looks seconds away from murder. 

She's attractive, but also dangerous. Sam is still reeling from the cognitive dissonance between the softness of her bedhead and the pure, unadulterated rage on her face when Andrea stalks right to her, takes the cup of coffee from her hands, and continues to argue with the person on the other end of the line as she goes off to the living room. 

Sam stands there with her hand in the Lego Minifig position for a long, long time. Ruby glances at her, and at the living room where they can both clearly hear Andrea's enraged rants, then at her again before muttering an 'I told you so' and leaving the room.

-

Sam goes in a few minutes after the ranting dies off to find a fuming Andrea on the sofa. She's nearly finished her coffee, and when Sam enters her eyes snap to her. 

Sam's anticipating some of that ire to be directed towards her, but instead Andrea's voice sounds almost pitiful when she says- "They’re doing maintenance on my jet now. Can you believe- what's the point of having a private jet if I can't even take it anywhere?!" 

"I wouldn't know, I've never had one." 

She tries for levity but it sinks and fails with Andrea giving her an unamused stare. 

She decides instead to sit down next to her. Andrea doesn't deign her worthy of her full attention. She turns over with a huff, running a hand through her hair in an effort to tame it. 

The floral robe has slid down her shoulders somewhat, and Sam tries not to stare at the play of her skin and the dark silk strap of the negligee underneath. It's not cold in the brownstone, but it's certainly not warm- outside the snow is falling, gentle but steady. 

"We're going to get a tree today." Sam starts, picking idly at a loose thread on one of the cushions nearby. "You wanna come?" 

Andrea's narrowed-eyed stare is somewhat all the more unsettling with her pale eyes. But after a long pause, Sam's almost _certain_ she notices the slightest twitch of Andrea's lips. Like she's... smiling. 

But then it's gone as soon as she sees it, and Andrea stands up, shoving the empty mug at Sam. "I'll think about it." 

-

Why the hell did she agree to this again?

She’s surrounded by the crisp scent of pine, lingering in the frosty air. Sam has a beanie on, and honest-to-god _mittens_ . Ruby tags along and Andrea can’t take the small devil seriously with the giant pom-pom on the top of her beanie. The Ariases are two peas in a pod with their tacky winter clothing as they trudge through the thin coating of snow by the trees, looking for the _perfect_ one. 

But Andrea’s just trying to avoid looking like she’s cold. Because she _isn’t_ , she just... didn’t expect for it to be this brisk outside. 

“This one?” 

“Too big. We’ll never get it through the door, Rubes.” 

Ruby runs off again, looking through the trees for the _perfect_ one amongst the nearly identical pines. Sam hums along to a Christmas carol that only she can hear in her mind, breath coalescing in little puffs like clouds in front of her lips. 

She's serene, and calm. 

Andrea is cold, and as her teeth start to chatter she shoves her hands firmly in her pockets. "What's the difference between the trees anyways? They're all the same," she grumbles, and Sam huffs out a laugh. 

"You can't just get _any_ tree. It can't be too big, or too small. Or too thin or thick. It can't be missing too many branches either, and-" 

"It's a tree. Not an investment property. You're just going to throw it out after Christmas, anyways." 

Sam turns to look at her then, the kind of measured look that she gives when she's trying to read beneath what Andrea's saying. It only lasts a moment though before another icy breeze whips through the rows of trees, and Andrea curses under her breath at the chill. 

"Are you c-" 

As Sam starts to get out of her coat, Andrea holds a hand out. "No. Calm down prince charming, I can survive." 

Sam pauses before she shrugs her coat back on, and to Andrea's annoyance she doesn't fix the upturned collar.

"The tree matters," Sam says after a few more steps through the seemingly endless rows of pines, "Because it's the centerpiece. And we have a lot of ornaments." 

Oh god. Decoration. Andrea sighs at the thought, and Sam grins at her displeasure. 

"You're not getting out of decorating. It's _tradition,_ and you're our guest so-" 

"Fine." Andrea sneers in Sam's direction, looking out at the trees. "But I'm not going to be happy about it." 

Sam chokes out an odd sort of laugh. "Are you sure Ruby isn't secretly yours?" 

Andrea glances back at Ruby, she'd almost entirely forgot she was there. She's preoccupied on her phone, barely paying attention. 

Perhaps this was what Sam meant by things being _different_ this year. The stress that had ended up eating away at her last night at her daughter going through the ugly phases of growing up. 

Andrea can remember her own teen years, underage drinking and breaking the rules at St Helena. Corrupting Lena and stringing her along 

Andrea arches an eyebrow, and huffs. If she steps closer to Sam because of people crossing the other way, and doesn't restore the personal space between them afterwards, then... that's for her and the trees to know. 

Sam hums under her breath, a chipper little holiday tune as she peruses the spruces. Thankfully for Andrea, she doesn't bring up the night before in the lull of conversation, doesn't try to make smalltalk about family, or holidays. 

Then of course, she has to hear the loud booming 'HO HO HO' of a less-than-stellar Santa Clause with a fake belly and fake beard to boot, causing a rampage of children to go storming past. They kick up snow as they go, and Andrea barely manages to step to the side, watching the crowd of people go trailing back to the main entrance. 

“I’ve had enough of this stupid holida-“ and obviously that's when she strays a little too far and her boot finds a slick portion of snow. Andrea’s words end up in a barely contained shriek, but before she can fall into the unforgiving prickly branches of the nearby pines a wiry arm shoots out behind her. 

Sam’s reflexes are so sharp that the catch seems to take her by surprise too. She blinks down at Andrea, a curious furrow between her eyes like she’s wondering why the other woman is in her arms. 

Her face is close enough for Andrea to see the way the corners of her eyes wrinkled just a bit when she smiled wide. Close enough for her to see her breath in the cold, the little puffs of air when she laughed forming like little tufts of cloud. 

“It’s perfect,” Sam breathes, and while Andrea reels at the implications, her breath caught in her throat, she realises that Sam is not looking _at_ her, but past her, at the tree that was almost her needl-y resting place. 

Of course. 

Of _all_ the trees in this stupid fucking farm. 

-

"It won't fit." Ruby unhelpfully comments, as Sam tries in vain to angle the tree just right to get it through the narrow front door. "It's going to touch the ceiling." 

"It'll fit!" Sam shouts, and there's another jostle of pine, needles skittering to the hardwood as she shakes and shimmies the tree from side to side. "It's gotta fit." 

At least Andrea decides to help somewhat, moving a vase from the hall stand as she watches the tree swing from side to side. 

For the record, it does eventually get in. Not with either of their help. By the end of it, Sam sits on the floor in a huff, her mittens tossed to either side of her and a red flush to her face. 

But she's not done. Ruby thinks that by the window, it looks odd and out of place. So Sam moves it to the corner, but in the corner it looks 'too squished'. Andrea makes a face when Sam places it right in front of the fireplace, in the center of the room, and gestures to the left corner but then it blocks the doorway to the kitchen. 

So Sam puts it on the _other_ side, and... It stands tall and way too imposing beside the fireplace, but in an odd way, it works. It fits the space, the ceiling is higher in the living room than it is in the hallway, and so Sam's overeager insistence that the tree was perfect... well. 

She doesn't want to say that she had a point, but truly. It does fit. 

Sam puts on another old CD of Christmas songs. Ruby decides to help out with decorating, plied with promises of snacks later on. She carries in their box full of ornaments, some that were rather unremarkable, others with clear sentimental value as they looked like they'd seen better years. 

"I think some of these got broken when we moved," Ruby muses, picking up one of the baubles and holding it up to her mom. It looks fine, up until she rotates it and shows that it's somehow split in two. "They're all old anyways, Mom. We should get new ones, all the same colour or something." 

"No." Sam refuses, and Andrea can see why, when she takes one of the ornaments and her eyes go wide and impossibly soft. "We can't. Ruby, look. That's your handprint!" 

There's a tiny little handprint that Sam coos at, and Ruby just idly stares at it, then at her own hand. 

"Your baby handprint, genius," Andrea teases, and Ruby sends her a withering glare. 

"I know it's not my- shut up. I'm just... that's so old mom. It's probably like thirteen years old. We need new ones." 

Sam cradles it between her hands, cherishing it before letting out a sigh at the sight of the massive, sparsely decorated tree. "Well if we go to the market we'll get a few new ones. But we still... it's _tradition_ , Ruby." 

Ruby rolls her eyes, and Andrea hears her mimic her mom's tone to herself before she grabs the box and starts haphazardly setting them on the tree. It's not a particularly difficult task, there are only a few that are usable, but it still seems to set the mood with the golden fairy lights strung between the boughs. 

"And don't forget," Sam sing-songs, grinning as she dances over with something behind her back. She's almost _too_ enthusiastic when she reveals the star and holds it out for Ruby with a big grin that Ruby half-assedly returns. "The star!" 

Andrea has to look away, the second hand embarrassment is that bad. But despite her urge to pretend like she's busy primping the tree, she's drawn into the moment by none other than Ruby. 

Ruby takes the star, and turns it over in her hands. There's a moment of pause, where she thinks about it, before she turns face and holds it out to Andrea. 

She thinks it's a joke at first, but just like her mother, her true emotions are written right on her face. Her brow is furrowed, and her lips twitch like she isn't sure if she should commit to the action or revert to her usual feigned disinterest. 

"Here." She says, brusque and without making eye contact she pushes it at Andrea as if to beg her to take it. "Since you're the guest and all." 

It's as much of an olive branch as Andrea thinks she'll get, so she takes it. She sees Sam's gobsmacked expression over her shoulder and it nearly makes her laugh.

She isn't going to let this go without rubbing it in just a little bit. "Amazing how a snowball fight and some lunch was all it took for you to hate me less." 

"Yeah well..." Ruby withers, and refuses to make eye contact, shoving her hands in her pockets. "I never really did hate you, okay? There. Now put the damn star on the tree." 

"Ruby!" Sam admonishes, and Andrea decides she better do so before Ruby takes out more of her colourful language. 

She turns around to the behemoth of a tree, and finds one problem as she reaches up, and stretches out on her toes. 

She can't reach the top. 

There's a scoff of laughter by her side, and she's ready for war before she hears Sam step up behind her with a "Here, let me help." 

She expects a chair, or a stepstool, or anything other than Sam's hands settling strong and sure on her hips. 

Then she's being lifted up, and Andrea lets out an indignant little sound at the back of her throat that makes Ruby burst into actual guffaws of laughter. 

"Don't worry, I've got you!" Sam says, and Andrea soon realises, as her feet are surely off the ground, that Sam does indeed have her. She quickly puts the tree up and slaps at Sam's hand repeatedly. 

"Okay, okay, put me _down_ , Jesus-" 

"It's kind of crooked," Ruby calls unhelpfully with a teasing grin, and Andrea shoots a glare over her shoulder that does nothing but make her chuckle. 

When she looks back at Sam, she notices her expression is soft yet again. The carols keep crooning on in the background, the words to _I'll Be Home For Christmas_ seeming all too fitting when Sam lets go of Andrea's hip to instead drop her hands on Ruby's shoulders and bring her to the kitchen for her well-earned snack break. 

The lights on the sparsely decorated tree twinkle in an imperfect cadence, and the branches of the tree are a little thinner than they had been when they'd seen the tree out in the lot but it feels perfect in its own strange way. 

-

"I'm going to the mall tomorrow," Andrea says as she storms into the bedroom, only belatedly remembering that it isn't her house, and not her bedroom either when she sees Sam scrambling to pull her shirt over her chest. 

"Sorry, I was changing. What was that?" 

Andrea tries desperately to blink the sight of smooth, tanned skin and the faint definition of abs out of her mind. It doesn't work. "Uh, yeah. Mall. Tomorrow. I can get a driver, or-" 

Sam's face takes on that same expression that Andrea had dreaded when she'd hotdesked and Sam needed a favour in return. 

"What is it." 

"Can you bring Ruby with you? I'll give you my car, shovel it out and everything. I just have to sort out this issue with the board before the holiday, and it'll be a pain in the ass to deal with so I just... need no distractions for a little while." 

Andrea raises an eyebrow, but Sam seems to be genuinely desperate. "You'll owe me." 

"Of course. I'll make you pancakes for breakfast if you do." 

"You know the way around my reasoning is through my stomach." 

"Really? I'll keep that in mind," Sam grins, and Andrea's smile widens- but not because of the playful banter. Her eyes train downwards, and Sam is taken aback for a moment when she steps closer to her, and reaches out a hand. 

"Sam?" 

Sam's breath catches in her throat. "Yeah?" 

Andrea grins, and tugs at the tag of her shirt. "You put your shirt on inside out. And backwards," She murmurs, and Sam glances down before sighing. Andrea laughs at her flusteredness, and pushes past her to head to the ensuite. 

"This wouldn't have happened if you didn't just barge into my room like you owned the place-" 

"Need I remind you that _you_ offered your bed to _me?_ That includes the room, so it's _our_ room now." Andrea throws over her shoulder, collecting her clothes before closing the ensuite door. 

But not before Sam can catch her teasing wink, and that's enough to send Sam into yet another flustered spiral. 

-

She doesn't get the pancakes that morning. Sam shovels the driveway though, as promised. She nearly heads out in her sleep shorts before Andrea pulls her by the sleeve and gestures at the gangly legs poking out of the reindeer-patterned shorts. 

But she does hold up that end of the bargain, and Ruby - albeit a little sleepy - jumps into the passenger seat and doesn't say anything the entire drive to the mall. 

It's not exactly Andrea's _favourite_ place to be. Shopping malls tend to be cesspits of lofty middle-American ideals, there are always too many screaming children, and people with attitudes that made her seem meek as a lamb in comparison. 

But she needs to buy gifts. And hopefully Ruby can help her out with them. 

Andrea drums on the steering wheel of Sam's car, and turns to look at Ruby. She looks at Andrea with a look of vague trepidation. 

"What?" 

"You need to help me." Andrea admits, and she's not ashamed to do so. She's got Ruby hostage right now, anyways. "I need a gift for your mom. And for _you_ , so you better help me or you're getting coal from me." 

Ruby perks up somewhat at the promise of a gift for herself, and lowers her phone just a bit. "Okay... so what are you thinking? Mom doesn't like a lot of things but she's too polite to say so...-" 

"A new stereo?" Andrea suggests, a little on the tentative side when Ruby grimaces. 

"You can't buy her a new one. She's like, weirdly attached to this one. She won't even take a new CD player." 

"Alright well... we'll figure it out. What are you getting her?" 

Ruby seems taken aback. "Me?" 

Andrea rolls her eyes. "Yes, you. You're a teenager, don't you work or whatever? Don't you have an allowance?" 

"Yeah but-" 

"Then you should buy your mom a gift." 

Ruby watches as Andrea digs into her purse and pulls out a sleek silver card, holding it between her fingers out at her. "Don't rack up too much, and meet me at the food court at twelve. We'll need lunch." 

Ruby's eyes go impossibly wide, and Andrea smirks at knowing that she's got another point in her favour with that move. 

Andrea has already got the tickets for Ruby's game printed out. She finds a box large enough to comfortably fit a new jersey she buys in a sports shop, and gets the store attendant to wrap it so that both the tickets and the jersey are inside. 

Sam is more difficult.

Andrea considers buying her some more CDs so she isn't forced to listen to Abba's greatest hits but she truly can't decide on what to get. 

So the other answer is to find some blank CDs. She doesn't recall if her laptop even _has_ a disc drive, it's been so long since she's even touched a CD voluntarily. So to be sure, she buys herself an external disc drive just in case. 

She finds a few other things while she's out for herself. A few bags of things which become a hassle when she gets a text from Ruby saying she's in the food court already. 

Surprisingly, she hasn't racked up a large debt and run off to buy a Lamborghini with her credit card. Her app only shows a purchase for thirty dollars at Staples. 

She finds the girl standing, tall and awkward (like her mother). She's waiting in line at a burger joint, a line that would be unusually long if it wasn't a few days until Christmas in a packed shopping mall. 

"What did you get her?" Ruby asks when she approaches, and Andrea's slightly displeased at not being able to frighten her like she did last time. 

"I'm going to make her a CD so she isn't just listening to old music all the time," Andrea says. "What did _you_ get her?" 

"A travel mug, post-its and a planner for next year. The planner has cupcakes on it." 

That sounds like Sam, and Ruby seems to think so because she smiles a little as well. Satisfied, Andrea holds out her hand, and Ruby stares at it for a moment before digging out the credit card from her pocket. 

When she hands it over, Andrea arches an eyebrow at her. "You didn't buy anything for yourself?" 

Ruby blinks owlishly, as if the thought hadn't occurred to her. For all the kid's flaws, Sam has still raised her well, apparently. Then the realisation sinks in, and Andrea can see the moment she kicks herself for not taking advantage earlier. 

Andrea laughs. "Hey, it's fine. We'll go back later. What do you want, anyways. Headphones? A new phone?" 

Ruby doesn't say anything for a long moment, glancing at the unshrinking line ahead of her. Andrea almost doesn't hear her above the cacophony in the food court, as when Ruby speaks next, her voice is a lot softer. 

"I thought you'd- you're _serious_ , aren't you." 

"What?" 

Ruby shrugs, as if that's meant to explain anything about the sudden shift in mood. "You're here. It's the holidays. Mom says you're stuck here but... _are you_?" 

"No, I'm actually... my jet is grounded for repairs. I'm not-" she looks at Ruby in confusion, her eyes narrowed. "Why did you think I was here?" 

Ruby doesn't seem to find what she'd been searching for, and she shakes her head, waving a hand in her direction. Andrea doesn't get to press her for details, because they're up to order next. 

Back at home? 

Sam is struggling. 

She can see hours of her life slipping away from her and her migraine makes her want to curl up in a dark, silent room, and sleep till Christmas. Instead, she's forced to sit there and smooth over other people's egos, acting the part of a perfect CEO who has everything handled. 

Which - she _does_. But they don't believe her on that. 

Eventually, she ends up on the couch. Her emails have been sorted, and there's nothing else to do on the work front, but she's _exhausted_ by twelve, and she's hungry, and the house is silent so she closes her eyes and tries to get at least an iota of rest before-

The door clicks, then swings open, bringing with it a flurry of snowflakes and an Arctic gust. She hears Ruby stomp down the hall, followed by Andrea, and they're both laden with several shopping bags. 

She's tempted to kick them right back out, but something smells _good_ and she sits up as Andrea walks over to her when she notices her eyes on her, handing her a brown paper bag. 

"Told you she wouldn't have eaten yet," Ruby calls out, already on her way towards the stairs. Andrea rolls her eyes, and gives Ruby an affectionate - yet exasperated - smile before turning back to look at Sam. 

"Rough day?" There's a hint of concern in her voice, and in her pale blue eyes. Sam sighs, and sits up properly, running her hand over her face as Ruby's thumping footsteps seem to rattle her brain in the worst way. 

"I've had better," Sam grumbles.

She tears into the bag to get to her burger, nearly moaning at the taste before she feels the couch dip next to her. 

For a while, Sam thinks she's going to show her something, or say something. But no, Andrea just sits there beside her, stealing fries. Ruby continues to stomp around upstairs. 

It's... unusual. But kind of nice? To have some company while she has lunch. However, Andrea isn't usually the type to spend time with her. 

"Andrea?" 

"Hm?" Andrea hums, but doesn't look up from her phone. 

"Do you need something?" 

"No." Andrea says, just as there's a loud thump upstairs, followed by more footsteps. 

It's then that things _click._

A large smile spreads on her face, and she lowers her burger to grin at Andrea. It takes the woman a moment to realise she's being observed, but when she does she arches her eyebrows expectantly. 

"So... did you get me something at the mall today?" 

Andrea scoffs. "No. You're not that important." 

"Okay then, why are you sitting here with me? I might just go upstairs and-" 

Sam starts to stand, but before she can get anywhere Andrea's hand shoots out to grab her arm. Sam grins back at her, and Andrea glares, knowing she's been caught out. 

"Maybe Ruby's wrapping your present. Sit the fuck down, eat your food, and pretend you don't know what's going on up there." 

Sam sits back down with a laugh- then she nearly chokes when Andrea shoves a fry into her mouth and it taps the back of her throat. 

"Wow, not much of a gag reflex on you," Andrea murmurs, and Sam's eyes widen almost comically once she stops coughing. 

"H-hey!" she stammers, before nudging Andrea aside. "Shut up." 

Andrea grins, and snatches a fry from Sam's bag and pops it into her mouth. She continues to sit next to Sam while Sam finishes off the burger and fries in front of her. Exactly what she would have ordered herself. 

\- 

The Metropolis Christmas Market is kitschy and packed full of people, sounds, sights, smells- it's not at all what Andrea had expected. 

Most things in Metropolis have already fallen towards the bougie and uninteresting. The watered-down versions of culture, storefronts without the slightest bit of personality, hopping onto trends and leaving them behind just as quick. That isn't the case in Sam's end of Metropolis, apparently. 

Sam walks with a spring in her step, and Ruby is by her side _actually_ present in the moment for once, her phone out to take photos of the different things they see. Curiosities and knick-knacks, handmade gifts. Food, which seems to be the Ariases' favourite part of the entire market. Everything underneath red tarps and marquees, fairy lights strung between the stalls overhead that twinkle like stars against the late-evening sky. 

There's a festive cheer in the air that would be obnoxious if it wasn't so _earnest_. 

Andrea turns to look at Sam, and sees her carefully walking over with two cups filled to the brim with hot cider. 

That's also something that makes this whole market a lot better. There's alcohol. Oh, and music, a live band. It's pleasant, but they don't play anything other than Christmas carols. 

It's then that she feels her phone buzz. Not expecting anything other than a mention on Twitter, she pulls it out, but is shaken to find that it's a text message from her assistant.

_Air traffic cleared us for tomorrow, 12pm, to National City. Pilot promised he'd do what he could to get you home by the holidays, Ms Rojas._

Andrea doesn't realise that Ruby's disappeared, lost in thought while staring at her phone, until she shows up and holds up a box of churros to Andrea. 

"Take one before I change my mind," She grumbles, and Andrea tucks her phone back into her pocket, trying her best to ignore it for now. 

"How generous," Andrea says with a half-hearted chuckle, and takes one. It's piping hot, and between that and the hot cider, she finds the cold doesn't bother her as much.

"Wow, it must be Christmas. I think I just saw Ruby being nice," Sam chimes, and Andrea's chest tightens at the sight of her wide smile. She doesn't know why the sight of Sam now makes her _dread_ leaving, because after all, isn't this what she wanted? 

Sam steps closer to her as they watch the next act start up on stage with raucous applause and an overeager burst of sound. She's already finished off her cider, and is licking churro sugar off her fingertips. She pauses when she notices Andrea's eyes on her, and raises her eyebrows expectantly. 

What is meant to come out is some sort of snarky remark about Sam being a messy eater. What actually comes out seems to avoid her brain filter, a direct line from her heart to her mouth. 

"Thank you." 

It's quiet, almost quiet enough to be unheard above the sounds of people and the band, kicking into another song. But Sam's not human, and her head swivels around to face her properly, eyebrows shot all the way up now and her eyes almost comically wide. 

She thankfully doesn't say anything stupid. Only smiles in the way that makes the corner of her eyes wrinkle just a bit, and loops an arm around Andrea briefly in a sort of sideways hug. 

If Andrea rests her head on her shoulder for a moment, then that's for them to know. 

"I know you've been stressed, and it's the holidays, and-" 

"Shush," Sam murmurs, squeezing her close. "You're actually not as bad as you seem. All bark and no bite." 

Andrea elbows her in the side. Unfortunately for her, it feels all the same as elbowing a brick wall, and she feels a twinge of pain in her arm while Sam laughs like she's been tickled. She does let go of her though, and just like that the moment passes and the cold air rushes between them again. 

"No bite huh? I'll show you," Andrea grumbles, and Sam's laugh is cheerful and bright. 

"Not before the first date, baby." 

She tries so hard not to let that get to her but the rush of warmth that meets her cheeks isn't just because of the cold and honestly? What the fuck. This is her former arch nemesis. She's leaving _tomorrow_ and yet- 

A date with Sam Arias doesn't sound all too bad. 

The cold must be getting to her. Or it's the spiked cider. 

"Where's Ruby?" Andrea asks, to change the subject. Sam's head swivels around and her eyes land on Ruby not too far away, across the open space with a group of other teenagers. School friends, perhaps. 

She's happy, and laughing. She's somehow got a pair of reindeer antlers on her head now and is goofing off by nearly shoving one of her friends to the ground. 

Andrea glances back at Sam and sees a little smile playing at the corner of her lips. "You know, when we got here, she hated it. I think she still hates me for moving her out of National City, cause she started making friends, she had a good team back there..." 

"She looks like she's fine now," 

"You wouldn't know by how she acts sometimes," 

"She's growing up. Teenagers do that," Andrea says with a huff, and Sam can tell she knows that firsthand. "Don't let it get to you, okay? You're doing great. She'll appreciate it... eventually." 

Sam shoves her hands into her pockets, and her brows furrow. Andrea expects her to say something, but instead she pulls her hand out and in it is a small ornament. 

It's actually quite beautiful. Twinkling glass that looks more like crystal in the shape of a star. 

"Oh. Before I forget," Sam blurts, and she holds out the ornament to Andrea. 

Andrea doesn't say anything, she takes it from Sam's hand. It's slightly warm (from being in her pocket) and she holds it delicately, turning it over to see how the light plays across the facets of the star. 

"For you. You can put it on the tree or you can keep it, I just- yeah. It's small, but-" Sam stammers, and is she _flustered?_ Andrea can't tell. But she places it in her bag, and feels the flush return to her cheeks when she looks at Sam's earnest eyes. 

"I guess I can find a place for it somewhere." Andrea responds, and she can't help it. She has to bring them back to some kind of normalcy. 

But she does step closer to Sam when the next song starts, and Sam might wrap her arm around her again like she wants to keep her close. And while Andrea's mind reminds her about the flight she has tomorrow, her heart tells her to rest her head on Sam's shoulder and enjoy the moment. 

So she does. 

-

"Okay, goodnight Papito. Love you. Yes, I'll call again soon, I know. It's the holidays, I'm not busy- yes I will take care of myself-" 

Sam isn't expecting to hear Andrea being so _soft_ on the phone, she'd only come downstairs to drop some extra wrapped presents under the tree. But she's left standing on the stairs awkwardly, staring at Andrea as she finishes up the call. 

Of course, Andrea is staring back at her as well, rather impassively. She doesn't seem to be bothered much by the fact that she's been caught out in this moment, in fact she doesn't seem to care at all. Blue eyes stare at Sam and take in her appearance, her festive pyjama pants and her old college hoodie, and if a smile sneaks up on her face well. That might be just Sam's wishful thinking. 

Andrea finishes up with a short message in Spanish, before hanging up. She sits with her legs crossed on the sofa, and pats the space next to her. After dropping off her gifts under the tree, Sam pours them two glasses of wine (rarely does she ever have a chance to share a drink with someone, so she takes the opportunity when she can) and she settles on the couch next to her. 

It's... unexpected to say the least. The air is charged, Sam isn't sure what to make of this quiet, pensive Andrea who takes the glass from her without a single snarky comment, and stares at the twinkling lights on the tree. 

The opening lines of _What Are You Doing New Years Eve_ start, and the mood shifts. Andrea smiles into her glass of wine, and looks at Sam through her lashes when she walks over. Every step feels like she's making a decision, a conscious choice. 

She holds out a hand to Andrea, like she'd wanted to all those days ago, and this time there's no phone call to interrupt. Andrea stares at her extended hand for a long moment - long enough for Sam to feel the weight of the gesture and regret it entirely, but Andrea places her glass on the coffee table. 

Then there's a soft hand in Sam's, and Andrea's body falling into step against her own. There's a grace in her movements, a way that she holds herself that makes Sam feel clumsy and impossibly out of her depth once they start to sway around the living room, but Andrea doesn't laugh at her for that. There's no rush of hot shame at a snarky comment or even a pointed look, instead Andrea seems to take the lead just a bit, guiding her steps to keep her steady. 

"You're not as bad as I thought," Andrea murmurs, and Sam has to huff out a laugh at that, because she feels _terrible_. The gangly giraffe comments from her high school prom feel all the more accurate in comparison to the grace and ease that Andrea guides them across the room, her hand settling high on Sam's back, pulling her closer. 

"I've got a good teacher," Sam says in response, and for once she isn't met with an eye roll or a scoff but a _smile_. 

And it's then that she realises that she'd do anything to get that smile out of Andrea again. She knows she's caught looking when Andrea's gaze locks onto her, and she closes the space somewhat, tilting her chin towards Sam. 

Sam's maybe a little too ahead of herself when she sucks in a breath, because as soon as she does Andrea shifts so they're cheek to cheek instead. It has the added benefit of bringing their bodies closer together, although Sam stays rather stiff despite Andrea's attempts at getting her to loosen up.

"This isn't a school dance, you can hold me," Andrea's words are hot against her ear, and Sam chuckles despite herself. 

The hand that was chastely resting on Andrea's side inches towards her lower back instead, feeling the warmth of her through her shirt. 

"Better," Andrea hums, satisfied, and at that Sam feels like she has to show her up a bit. 

She steps back, holding Andrea's hand and the other woman blinks up at her, confused before she realises what Sam is doing, spinning her around like she'd seen before in movies. Andrea's laugh is unexpected, and she goes along with it (thank god, Sam would have died of embarrassment if she hadn't). She ends up back in front of her, and Sam feels her cheeks burning with how big her smile is. 

Andrea backhands Sam's shoulder, but her smile makes her eyes wrinkle. "Cut that out! This is serious," 

"Is it?" Sam retorts, this time holding Andrea's hand and twirling herself. She has to duck a little to do so and Andrea laughs again, pulling Sam in by the front of her shirt to get her to stop. 

She stops with the goofiness but looks at their feet next, watching Andrea's steps. When Andrea tilts her chin back up with her finger, their faces are inches from each other, and the side-to-side slows as the music begins to fade. 

Andrea can't hold it back anymore. Not when Sam's looking at her like that, with her honey-brown eyes filled with so much _affection_ and mischief. When they just slow danced in the living room and her hand is still on Sam's shirt, holding her close. Sam's eyes start to flutter, she glances down at Andrea's lips again, then to her eyes, an unspoken question-

Andrea pulls back, and the air rushes back into her lungs once again. "Sam, I-" 

Sam shakes herself out of the spell, her eyes closed shut, and she grimaces to herself. "Right. Sorry. I- uh. I have to get ready for bed. I'm tired and I-" 

" _Sam-"_ Andrea starts, but Sam pulls back out of her grasp, about to walk off. "I'm leaving tomorrow," she blurts, and that puts a stop to Sam's flustered escape. 

She swivels around to look at Andrea again, her expression unreadable. 

"My flight is at twelve..." 

There's a flash of something that Andrea would call sadness, but it's covered quickly with one of Sam's smiles. One that doesn't quite meet her eyes. When she talks next, it's with the kind of weak friendliness that only a CEO could have. "Hey. That's what you wanted, right? Home for the holidays. I'm happy to hear that." 

Andrea watches Sam's retreating form, and can't quite find the words to tell her that it doesn't feel much like home anymore. 

-

Of course, irony being what it is, Andrea wakes up the next morning in Sam's bed in complete warmth and comfort. 

She nearly goes back to sleep too. She hasn't had a good night's sleep like this in ages. Despite the almost melancholy 'goodnight', Andrea went to sleep on her side, and Sam went on her own. 

But she wakes up surrounded by warmth, Sam's arm tossed around her, her own curled up between their bodies. She has to untangle her hand from Sam's shirt, it somehow ended up there in the middle of the night, and that's unfortunately what wakes Sam up from her slumber. 

They're face to face, and it's _rude_ how beautiful Sam is when she wakes. The little bleariness to her gaze as she notices Andrea watching her, and the smile that spreads on her face. 

Of course, Sam would wake up _smiling_. 

"You look like shit." Sam murmurs, her voice husky with sleep, and that shatters the moment. 

Andrea slaps her, and the sound is a resounding _crack_ that gets little more than a huff out of Sam. Sam's hand slides back and forth over her arm, as if to warm her up before she rolls onto her back, staring up at the ceiling as she stretches. Andrea doesn't watch her long limbs as she stretches, only sits up and gets her phone, trying to ignore the racing of her heart and the way her nerves feel on edge from waking up so _close_ to Sam.

She's woken up next to people before. It shouldn't feel like this. 

"When do I have to drive you to the airport?" Sam asks, rubbing her face, and Andrea wonders when Sam will stop being so goddamn _nice._

"Ten," Andrea says, and slides her phone into her pocket. 

"I owe you pancakes. I'mma make them." Sam gets up with all the grace of a baby horse, stumbling out of bed and dragging half the blankets with her. Andrea tries not to laugh, but she's _adorable_ -

Fuck. She's falling for Sam Arias.

They have breakfast and it's an almost sombre affair, despite being rushed. Andrea has to pack, and that takes longer than it should have (she'd unpacked so much more of her things than she'd realised). 

Then they're bundled into the car, it's snowing steadily, however her flight crew sent their confidence that they'd be able to do the Christmas Eve flight to National City with no issue. 

It's when they're getting out of the car, and Sam's hefting out Andrea's second suitcase from the trunk, that Ruby finally speaks up after almost an entire morning of silence.

"Andrea?" She scuffs her shoe on the parking lot surface, not really giving much thought to the state of her shoes as she does so. 

Andrea turns to face her, and sees that the teen has her shoulders hunched, arms crossed. She isn't looking at her. "Yes?" 

"You didn't even get to give Mom her present." 

"You'll just have to record her reaction for me." 

The unspoken _it isn't the same_ is written all over Ruby's face, but Andrea doesn't want to let her dwell in it. She holds out her arms, and is wholly unsurprised when Ruby goes in for the hug, but the way Sam skids to a stop and nearly drops her suitcase tells her that it's entirely out of character for her prickly teen daughter. 

"Be good to your mom, okay? She's trying her best," Andrea whispers, and Ruby nods against her shoulder before pulling back quickly, wiping her nose with a not-so-discreet sniffle and glaring into the distance. 

Andrea says goodbye to Sam differently. Sam walks her through the terminal, right up to the security gate. She keeps her hands in her pockets and her eyes trained downwards for most of it, only looks up when Andrea pauses by the gate, and looks back at her. 

"That snow is still coming down fast, you sure you can't stay?" Sam says with a little half-hearted chuckle, as if she knows it's pointless. 

Andrea gives her a tight-lipped smile. "What, we're making small talk about the weather now?" 

Sam gives her a little self deprecating chuckle, and brushes a lock of hair out of her face. There's still that distance between them, one that Sam doesn't cross, that Andrea wishes she would. 

She meets Sam's eyes, and Sam lets out a heavy sigh, wrinkling her nose like she's holding back a stronger reaction. 

"You can't stay at all? Not even for Christmas dinner?" She's almost pleading with her, and Andrea isn't sure why that makes it hard to breathe. "I already got the turkey, we just need people to come eat." 

" _Sam_ ," Andrea sighs, and pinches the bridge of her nose. She can't... she's got things to do in National City. An apartment, her own place. Friends to see. Things to do. And she can't impose, it's not her place. 

" _Andrea_ ," Sam wheedles, a grin spreading on her face like she knows she's winning, and Andrea looks up at Sam as if to say - _really?_ \- but Sam's expression isn't one of victory. "I got you a present and everything. It's under the tree." 

"Mail it." 

"It'll get to you in a million years. It's easier if you just stay-" Sam tries again, and the chaotic whirlwind of emotions bubbling up in Andrea reaches boiling point. 

" _Sam_." Andrea snaps now, and the change in tone has Sam reeling back. "I'm not the kind of person you want, okay?" 

The air goes cold, and Sam's smile falters. 

"I'm not going to sit around and play house with you for the holidays. I've got two companies to run, one that's still in operation for the next two weeks. This was _fun_ , but it didn't mean anything to me, alright? So get whatever ideas you have of me and you enjoying the holidays out of your head. It's just not realistic." 

Her words come out sharp and quick, like the crack of a whip. Sam's eyes sting with the blow, but she puts her chin up, keeps her shock in check and pulls on every bit of CEO fortitude she can to keep herself together. 

Andrea doesn't say anything after that, she grabs the handle of her carry-on and goes to walk to the gate. 

"Andrea!" Sam calls after her, and when Andrea doesn't turn right away she considers running through the security gate but decides that getting reprimanded by the TSA isn't what she had planned for her Christmas Eve. 

Andrea does turn around eventually though. Glances back once, and Sam can barely raise a hand to wave goodbye before she turns and the last thing Sam sees is her hair billowing behind her as she turns the corner. 

-

Christmas Eve in the Arias household is usually the one that has more of the formalities expected of the holidays. A Christmas dinner, when Ruby was younger they'd sing some carols together, eating too much and going to sleep early to wake up barely past the crack of dawn the next day.

Ruby helps a little with the cooking, but there's a sense that this Christmas isn't going to be the same. They have the TV on for background noise, there's some kind of concert going on and they both watch with the occasional idle interest. 

But again, it doesn't feel the same. 

And when _Blue Christmas_ starts to play, all Sam can think of is another kind of blue.

-

"We have a small window to leave Metropolis, but I think we can manage it. The storm cell that's coming in will be a nasty one. If we don't go now, we'd be snowed in till New Years." 

Andrea glances up from her phone at that, glancing at the jet that is still being prepped on the runway. 

She has to go now. Otherwise, she'll be stuck in Metropolis for a long, _long_ time. There's no point in going back for Christmas with the Ariases, because she wouldn't be able to just up and leave the next day. 

She opens her bag, hunting for her tablet to write in a request for her personal chef to prepare dinner before she arrives in National City, but what she finds brings her pause. 

Her hand closes around something smooth, faceted. She notices a glint of glass, and takes it out into the light. 

The little star ornament twinkles and shines, and the sudden, overwhelming rush of emotion she gets when she holds it in her hand makes it hard to breathe. 

' _It didn't mean anything to me, alright?'_

God, why did she _say_ that?! 

Sam's bashful, flustered face comes back into her mind right in that moment. The day at the market, standing close together under the guise of staying warm. The way she'd laugh and redirect her gaze almost right away, embarrassed and shy. 

Sam had felt something then, she's sure of it. She felt something too. When they were dancing, and Sam twirled her around and held her close. 

And she can't act like she wasn't feeling _something_ when she'd woken up in Sam's arms. 

"Ms Rojas?" The pilot repeats, and when Andrea glances at her watch, it's fifteen minutes to midday. "We're ready for you." 

She prepares to get up, but the ornament feels like it's about to burn a hole in her hand. She looks over at the jet, waiting. Waiting to bring her home, to National City, to an empty apartment-

"I'm not going." 

There's a pause. The pilot stares at her like he doesn't quite understand what's going on. Her assistant walks over then, hasty and confused at the tense stand-still between them, and when Andrea repeats herself, the assistant stammers-

"But Ms Rojas, the crew is ready-" 

"I'll still pay them for their time. So it's no big deal," she says with a wave of her wrist, and she isn't feeling _generous_ but it is the season for it."Tell them to spend this time with their families or something." 

Andrea nearly misses their surprise when she stands up, hoists her bag on her shoulder and takes her suitcases towards the terminal exit. Clearly, they did not expect that from her.

-

The weather turns, _fast._ Sam's stuck to staring outside the window while she waits for the cookies to bake. Ruby's in her room, playing games or something - Sam isn't sure, but she's not about to bother her to get her to spend time with her when she'd just end up the opposite of good company. 

The snow comes strong and heavy, and the sky is thick with clouds. A snowstorm, if the wind is anything to go by. She's surprised to see people still driving around in the snow, even more surprised when a car pulls up in front of the house. 

There's a scramble in the wind as the snow comes down in flurries, and she makes her way to the front door to help what she assumes is a neighbor-

Then there's a knock on her own door. 

And she pauses, her heart in her throat. 

It _can't_ be. 

It wouldn't be. She tries to fight down her wishful thinking but when she swings open the door, and closes her eyes at the initial gust of frigid, icy air that meets her face she blinks past the snow to see _Andrea_ , rosy cheeks, windburned lips, and bright blue eyes staring back at her. 

She's shivering, and she pushes past Sam with her bags in tow, leaving a dusting of snow on the hardwood. Sam quickly closes the door behind her, and Andrea turns to look at her, snow melting in her hair as she does so. 

"I'm not here for you. I just- I didn't get to put my decoration on the tree," 

As far as explanations go, that is... _not_ what Sam expected. 

She glances back out the window. The snow is growing thick, and those clouds look _angry._ "There's a snowstorm," 

"I know," Andrea breathes, still catching her breath. 

"You're going to be stuck here if you don't fly out before-" 

"I _know_." Andrea snaps, and Sam closes her jaw with an audible click. "Don't make me say it, Sam." 

"Make you say what?" she's confused- but genuinely. Andrea's eyes plead with her to give her a break, but... she can't. She needs to know, needs to hear it from her mouth-

"That I'm s-sorry." Andrea chokes out, before shrugging off her coat. "Can I have a place to put-" 

Sam doesn't let her finish her sentence. 

She pulls her in for a hug, and Andrea's eyes go wide before she melts into it, burying her face into the burning warmth of Sam's neck. Sam doesn't even flinch at the cold of Andrea's skin against her own, only holds her tight, one hand at the back of her head, keeping her in place. 

"Don't do that again," Sam's voice breaks, and Andrea's stomach drops. "Please-" 

"I'm sorry," Andrea repeats, and it's her turn to comfort Sam now, pulling back so she can see her face, to wipe away the small tear she sees on her cheek. "Stop crying, you idiot. You're making me feel bad," she jokes, but she truly does feel awful. 

Sam chuckles, and pulls back to wipe at her face just as there's a _ding_ from the kitchen, and she perks up considerably. "Well, now that you're here, we have cookies to decorate, a turkey to roast, potatoes to peel-" 

Andrea's so, _so_ grateful to see that teasing glint back in Sam's eye, and she smiles despite herself. "You're setting me to work right away?" 

"You've gotta earn my forgiveness, Rojas." 

-

As soon as Ruby gets downstairs and sees Andrea decorating cookies with her mom, she leaves the room. And reenters, just to prove that she actually exists. 

"You're back," she says bluntly, and Sam rolls her eyes. 

"You'd have known earlier if you weren't upstairs with your headphones on." Sam says with a scoff, before glancing at Andrea. "Which, by the way-" 

Andrea shrugs, swiping her finger through Sam's icing and sticking it into her mouth before pulling it out with a pop. "An early Christmas gift. What? Am I not allowed to be generous?" 

"Yeah mom," Ruby adds, a grin spreading on her face. "Andrea was being _generous._ It's the season for that. We should encourage-" 

"Okay, I'm already seeing how this is going to go. No ganging up on me," Sam scolds, pointing at the both of them. "It's Christmas. You have to be nice," 

"You're too easy," Andrea teases, elbowing Sam. The taller woman laughs, and Andrea doesn't miss the way Ruby seems to delight in her mom's happiness. 

It's sweet. 

Cookies are first, then dinner preparations. Ruby peels potatoes, Andrea prepares the rest of the vegetables. 

"I don't trust her with a knife." Sam whispers, and Andrea doesn't blame her. Ruby uses a peeler but she peels towards herself, and nearly peels the skin off her fingers once or twice. And she won't take advice either, too stubborn for that. 

"I can see why." 

Ruby leaves for a little while after potato duty, not really interested in hanging around for much else. Sam doesn't force her to, for obvious reasons. 

But then it's just the two of them, and there's the carols on Sam's stereo, something jazzy and rather upbeat that Andrea doesn't mind tapping her foot along to. Sam steps up behind her to get the salt while she's making sure the potatoes are boiling, and Andrea _wishes_ she didn't leave so much space between them. 

She glances to the side, catching Sam's eye, and the taller woman smiles, brandishing the salt as explanation before returning to whatever she was doing. 

It's... _pleasant._ A world of difference from what would have been waiting for her at home, something prepared by someone else, some music, wine, and scrolling through Instagram feeling envious of other people's celebrations till she fell asleep. 

Instead now she has Sam, muttering ingredients to herself as she cooks, and it's _adorable_. 

Of course, by the time dinner actually starts? The lights cut out. 

And not just the lights. The power cuts out, so there goes the heater, and the music. And they're left sitting there in the dark at Sam's square table in the corner of what is meant to be a dining room but is more like a half-room on the side of the kitchen. The streetlights are out too, and they're entirely in the dark, Ruby shouting unhelpfully before Andrea puts on her phone flashlight and illuminates the table in an eerie blue-ish glow. 

The wind howls outside. 

"The snowstorm," Sam says, pointing out the obvious. She groans, and covers her face with her hand before shoving her chair back from the table, standing up. "This is a _disaster_." 

"How are we gonna see our food!" Ruby cries, and the hysterics are hilarious until they aren't. 

"Do you have any candles?" Andrea asks, and Sam blinks before clicking her fingers. 

"Wait. Yes. Yes I do." Sam says, and goes scurrying off in the room. Then scurries back when she realises she can't see anything.

Andrea hands her phone over, and Sam mutters a thanks before going to a cabinet and taking out a few candles. 

"They're only these little ones." Sam calls after a few minutes rummaging around, holding a bunch of tea lights. 

"Those are fine," Andrea says, waving her over. Sam is confused until she sees that Andrea has a lighter. 

"Where'd you-" 

"Do I need a reason to?" Andrea asks, arching an eyebrow, and Sam shrugs and stays silent. Before long, they're able to eat at the table by the flickering light of four tiny candles. 

It doesn't get any better after dinner. After washing up, it starts to get noticeably cold in the brownstone. The windows let in a draft, and so Sam goes over to the fireplace, lugging over a few logs and using old newspaper as kindling. 

It's then that Andrea notes that Sam does in fact light kindling _in her hands_ like some kind of maniac, and doesn't seem to care when the flame gets large enough to lick at her hands before she sets the kindling in to catch the firewood. 

There are no real hot drinks, since Sam's stove is an induction cooktop. Ruby's in a food coma on the couch, sprawled across the entire thing, so Andrea sits on the loveseat. 

When Sam's set the fire and it starts to crackle to life, she wanders over and sits next to Andrea. She smells a little of smoke, it clings to the fibres of the worn reindeer sweater she wears. But she's warm, so Andrea sits up close next to her. 

"What did you ask Santa for this year, Ruby?" Andrea asks, to make conversation. It's awkward, there's no music, there's no television, and a full belly and good alcohol makes her feel lethargic. 

Ruby turns to look at Andrea and Sam lazily. "You mean Sam-ta?" she jokes, pointing at her Mom and grinning at the lame joke.

Like mother, like daughter. 

At Andrea's unimpressed look, she shrugs. "I _wanted_ a PS5." 

"You're not getting a PS5." Sam cuts in when Andrea starts to open her mouth. "She's not getting one till she picks her grades up." 

"I want one for my birthday." Ruby says with a pointed look at Andrea, and she decides not to let it be known that she already has one. 

"Well then you better get studying," Andrea says, and Sam grins in victory while Ruby sighs. 

"Whatever," 

There's nothing else really that she has to say after that. She gets tired, and asks Sam if they're staying up till midnight. When Sam says no, she stomps up to bed. It's probably boredom, a bit of exhaustion. Either way, the house is quiet before long, and it's still just the two of them sitting on the loveseat together. 

The tree still looks nice without the lights. Andrea stares at it idly, and Sam glances over and smiles. 

"I noticed your presents were under the tree," 

"I didn't get her a PS5. Don't worry. I'm not undermining your parenting." 

Sam laughs, and shakes her head. It takes her a moment to return to that same tone from before, oddly pensive. "No. I noticed that it wasn't big enough for that. But... you bought us things, then you left them here. I don't know why you did that." 

"I let you know my feelings clear enough at the airport-" 

"Those weren't your _feelings_ ," Sam counters, and Andrea's stunned at her boldness. "If they were, you wouldn't have done all of this. You wouldn't have come back." 

Sam gestures at the tree, and of course, Andrea's glass star. Her ornament, the _special_ one. It takes pride of place on the left-side, close to one that looks like a soccer ball, and across from another one that looks like a donut. 

"I just hope you know that-" 

"Sam, don't let the candlelight make you think that this was a romantic gesture." Andrea cuts Sam off, but they both know she's lying. "There's no way in hell that I'd like you. You annoy me too much." 

"Are you getting this out of your system?" Sam asks, her brow furrowed but a smile growing on her lips. Andrea shakes her head. 

"No I'm not. You're annoying. Tall. Awkward. You're terrible to share a bed with. You can't dance, your jokes suck, and you look stupid when you smile." 

"Okay," Sam says with a hum, leaning with her arm on the back of the couch. "Anything else?" 

"You smell like cinnamon," That one didn't quite fit. Sam raises an eyebrow and Andrea quickly adds, "I hate cinnamon." 

Sam grins, and Andrea can't- she can't bear to look at her anymore. So she looks at the fire, the flickering flames in the fireplace, and slaps a hand on her thigh. 

"Stop looking at me like that," 

"Like what?" Sam teases, and looks at her in the same way. That stupid, soft smile. 

"Like-" Andrea starts, then gets caught in her eyes when she turns to glare at her, and from there Andrea's lost for how to get her to cut it out- 

So she pulls her in by the front of her dorky sweater and kisses her. 

Sam's lips taste of stolen cookies, of icing and cinnamon and ginger and _Sam_ . She's soft, and she falls apart at the first press of their lips together, falls so delicately against Andrea that she can only imagine that she's been thinking about this just as much as she has. They've both been trapped in this endless loop of bickering for what feels like an eternity that it's only so fitting that now, _now_ , Andrea can finally kiss that stupid smile off Sam's face. 

Sam's hands come to cradle Andrea's face between them, and she surges up against her with a sharp intake of breath. Then the power shifts, and it's Andrea who gives into Sam, who lets her lips part for Sam's tongue as she drags it across her lower lip. There's nothing for a while but the slick press of lips, and Andrea's hand slowly easing off Sam's sweater until her hand is pressed flat on her chest, and she's pushing her back into the sofa. 

She falls back with a sharp exhale, and stares up at Andrea as she throws a leg over her, settling her weight on top of Sam as she pushes her down into the cushions. Sam's eyes are kiss-drunk, pupils blown, her lips apart and glistening in the firelight, her hair splayed beneath her but despite how seductive Sam looks right now, that goofy smile undercuts it all, and she looks at Andrea like- well. Like a kid at Christmas. 

-

The next morning is-

Well...

It's Christmas morning. And Ruby is a teenager with a lot of sass and attitude, but she still wakes up at 6am. 

Andrea and Sam however, had spent most of last night awake. Busy. Of course, Andrea would never put out before the first date (she has standards) and she is incredibly grateful that she didn't make an exception this time because the door flies open, and Ruby barges in, and Sam sits up and nearly throws Andrea off the bed with how quickly she pushes her aside. 

(Luckily, Sam was fast enough that Ruby didn't see where Andrea's hand had ended up in the middle of the night, but _still,_ the indignity of it all-). 

"Mom. I already know. I've known since like last week at the mall, you two aren't subtle. And I know what grownups do. I watch Riverdale." 

"We weren't even together- we _aren't_ together-" Sam hisses, then grimaces before shaking her head. "No. Ruby, it's not that. Also we've gotta talk about the kind of TV you watch-" 

Andrea tries her best to act like she's not eavesdropping, but really their stage whispers make it hard to act like she's incapable of hearing them from the bathroom as they talk out in the hallway. Eventually, they clear off to work on breakfast and poke around at their gifts, and Andrea's free to get ready in peace-

Is that a hickey?

-

Andrea walks out in a turtleneck, and Sam immediately thinks that she's in trouble. However, Andrea doesn't say anything to her, doesn't seem bothered in the slightest. In fact, she takes her cup of coffee from the counter, and walks over to Sam and Ruby near the tree, sitting down and gesturing at the gifts. 

"Glad to see you didn't get started without me." 

"Of course we didn't." Sam says, and pats the ground next to her. Andrea doesn't sit on the floor, she takes a chaise instead. 

So Sam scoots over on the carpet to be closer to her, and it's endearing but kind of a lot at the same time. She kicks at Sam to stop her approach but again, it's like hitting concrete and Andrea regrets almost instantly. 

"Ruby first?" Ruby asks, already reaching for Andrea's gift, and Sam rolls her eyes. 

"Of course, but don't you wanna see what _I_ got you?" 

"I already know it's the empty box from my phone mom, you aren't smart." 

Andrea chuckles at that, and Sam tilts her head back to give her a narrow-eyed glare. "You're meant to be on my side. Also, you _already_ got her headphones. You're going to spoil her." 

Andrea only smiles, and nods at Ruby to open her gift. Sam continues to grumble, so Andrea pats the top of her head before ruffling her hair enough to mess it up and get her to complain. 

"It's _Christmas,_ Samantha," 

"Yeah mom," Ruby grins, always ready to get in on throwing Sam's words back at her. "It's _Christmas_." 

She tears open the wrapping paper and finds the box. She opens the box a lot slower, glancing at Andrea every now and again like she could somehow figure out what's in the box by reading her facial expression. 

Then she opens it, and her jaw drops in shock. She lifts up the soccer boots, and notices the jersey underneath and can barely contain her excitement at either one. 

"Andrea! You're the best-" she starts, and Sam is excited too but Andrea quickly gestures to the box. 

"That's not it." 

Ruby's eyes go wide, and she looks back in the box, lifting the jersey the rest of the way before dropping it in shock.

"Are these tickets to the next USWNT game? In the _box?!_ No way- I've never-" 

"What?" Sam asks, leaning forward to see what has Ruby stunned into silence. She glances over Ruby's shoulder, then looks back at Andrea with a look that clearly says 'you didn't have to do that'. 

But of course, Andrea just smirks and says - "Be grateful I didn't buy her a team." 

That gets Sam rolling her eyes. 

The next gift is Andrea's, and Ruby's chuckles almost have her opening the gift at arms-length in case it's a prank or something similar. But instead, she finds something a lot less sinister. 

Sam grins up at her. 

"So you can have socks like me." 

They look _outrageous_. Obnoxiously coloured, two sets for each day of the week, each in equally ridiculous colours. 

But they also look... _cozy_. 

And she's loathe to admit it but she doesn't exactly _hate_ the idea of having something to remember this trip by. To remember Sam by. Even if they're ridiculous, gaudy, colourful, patterned woolen socks. 

"It could have been worse. It could have been bath soaps." Andrea muses to herself, and Sam's laugh brightens up the room as it always does. 

Some part of her gratitude must come across, because Sam does that dopey happy smile, and Andrea can't stand it so she thrusts her own gift at Sam's face to cover it up. 

"Merry Capitalism to you too," she snarks, and Sam rolls her eyes, picking up the meticulously wrapped present with eager hands. 

Despite the enthusiasm at which she picks up the gift, she seems to be the most _annoying_ person to watch open a wrapped item. She first shakes it by her ear, and Andrea tuts under her breath as Ruby snort-laughs in the background. Then, she delicately slides a finger under the paper to loosen up the tape-

"Hurry up or I'll open it myself." Andrea snaps, and Sam gives her a cheeky grin that- oh right. She was messing with her. 

Andrea rolls her eyes as Sam finally opens up the gift, and pauses with the paper halfway off the plastic cover. She watches with a nervousness building up in her throat - was this a good idea after all? Did she accidentally offend Sam in some way? - that is unfamiliar as it is unwanted. 

Sam's brow furrows, and her smile drops just a bit as she takes in the plastic cover, the CD sitting inside, with the words _'good music'_ scrawled on it in black sharpie. 

Then-

"You made me a mix?" 

"I thought-" Andrea starts, but the words get caught in her throat when Sam looks at her with soft honey-brown eyes, blown wide in something that can only be described as... 

Well. 

Andrea swallows hard, but the blush still rises to her cheeks. "You won't get rid of that CD player. At least this way you'll have some better music to play on it." 

" _Andrea_ ," Sam stretches out the syllables of her name, and a grin spreads on her face but for once Andrea doesn't hate it. Not one bit. "This is..." 

"I know," she cuts her off, knowing that whatever she says about the CD will more than likely make her regret ever coming up with the idea to make one. Sam says nothing, only presses her lips together and tilts her chin up, the case cradled close to her chest. "Ruby what game did you get again?" 

And the deflection works. At least for the moment it does. Ruby bustles over and Andrea places a hand on her shoulder as she gets directed towards the TV. She only glances back once, and that's to find Sam there with that stupid little grin on her face, and a rosyness to her cheeks that Andrea isn't in the mood to unpack just yet. 

-

It's later that evening, after the rush of dinner and presents and excitement and _everything_ that Andrea gets ready for bed and hears the sound of music elsewhere in the house. 

Music from the mix she made.

It's an old place, and she's used to it by now. The fact that the walls are both thick and thin in different places all at once. The way the building creaks and groans when trucks pass or someone walks to the bathroom in the middle of the night. 

"You're wearing the socks," Sam says when she walks over, and Andrea rolls her eyes. 

"They're warm. It's drafty in here," Andrea responds with a shrug, as some form of explanation. Sam pats the couch next to her, but Andrea surprises her by settling right into her lap, since there's no real reason not to. 

Ruby's asleep. They've already opened up this possibility for them. The future is looking all the more better with the possibility for more time like _this_ , with Sam's hands on her thighs and those gentle, searching kisses. 

"Why are you sitting here," Andrea says, then pauses to kiss Sam's lips once more- "all alone-" and again- "on Christmas day?" 

"Not alone," Sam murmurs, "Just waiting for you. How long are you stuck here?" 

Andrea's words are halted when Sam starts to work her way down her neck again. "Till New Year's-" she gasps, and Sam smiles against her skin. 

"I hope there's another snowstorm." 

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at me on twitter @jordyn_daskey or on tumblr @daskey! might also do a new years fic just sayin if there's interest


End file.
